The Nomad The Possesions of the Wild series Volume 1
by averyloves2write
Summary: [COMPLETED] Being self-exiled isn't always easy, especially for 14-year-old Kaiya. But what at first seems to be a confusing choice might lead her on the right path along with a goal- surviving becoming a shinobi in Konoha. This is the first volume of the 'The Possessions of the Wild' series
1. 1 Arrival

**Chapter 1: Arrival**

**I can't seem to be able to insert a video here, so here's a link to the Naruto OST 'Floating Dead Leaves', or Ochihabune in Japanese. I think the song would bring a nice vibe if you listen to it while reading. I hope you enjoy it! :)**

** watch?v=Cy7y8uwjq08**

This wasn't her first attempt in such thing, but it was, for sure, the first time she made it this far. She huffed in annoyance as her footsteps increased on the wooden floor. Next to her, a boy with the most annoying temper she came across tried to keep up with her bold legs.

'Say again, what was your name?' He asked, trying to get rid of the black curls that blocked his eyesight.

'Kaiya.' she sighed.

She wasn't acquaintances to him for more than five minutes, but she was already tired of him.

'Hm, nice name.' He stated, just as he did for the past five times when he asked for her name. 'Well, here we are.'

They stopped in front of a large set of wooden doors that almost touched the high ceiling.

'Don't forget,' the boy warned, 'we're about to talk to the Hokage, and, since he's the leader of the village, you might want to show some respect.

'_Excuse me-_' She said indignated, but couldn't say anything more as the boy already knocked at the door.

Who was _he _to order her on how to act? She would've said a few words to him, but she had better things to do than to blindly argue. She looked ahead as she put her dark auburn hair behind her ears in a nervous manner, preparing her speech for the thousandth time that morning.

'Enter.' A deep voice said from behind the doors.

_Here goes nothing, _Kaiya thought, as the boy pushed the doors open. He entered, followed by a hesitant Kaiya. While the boy closed the doors, Kaiya analysed the room. It was a rather spacious, circular room with huge windows at it's another side and very few items located in it; a couple of portraits spead across the walls and a desk at which sat an old man with and pipe in his mouth, clothed in the official clothes of a Kage.

'Hello, Akira. How may I help you?' The man greeted with a smile on his face.

'Good afternoon, Lord Hokage.' Akira spoke as he bowed, making Kaiya wonder if she should do the same. 'I came in to report.'

'Report? So early? Let's hear it, then.' The Hokage said, with a mix of surprise and worry; the report should've been done only in four hours.

'This girl, Kana-'

'_Kaiya, you-_' Kaiya corrected before blocking herself, frowning. She couldn't help it; she hated when people mispronounced her name, especially if she'd say it many times before. To top it all, she not only said it many times before, but in a very short amount of time.

'Right. She demanded to see you. Daichi and I tried to explain to her that you're a busy person but-'

'It's fine, Akira.' The Hokage turned to Kaiya. 'How can I help you?'

'I wish to settle down in Konoha.' Kaiya spoke loud and as clear as she could, just as she practiced beforehand.

'Settle down?' The Hokage raised his eyebrows in surprise. 'How comes?'

The Hokage looked at the girl. She was tall with a dark auburn hair, a tired pose, light scars here and there on her face and arms, casual clothes, a small, dirty, yellow purse tied just above her hips and a look that almost suggested that she took part in a pig fight.

The most eye-catching thing about her would've been the tachi sword she was carrying on her back. Much to his surprise, she didn't wear any forehead protector that might've helped him identify any affiliation. He didn't know if he should feel worried or curious about it.

Kaiya looked at the Hokage, locking her onyx gaze on his. She saw this coming, and she never looked forward to explaining. Taking what happened in the Mist Village, she preferred telling as little details as possible.

'It's nothing complicated.' She simply answered, well aware of her seemingly odd accent. 'I want to find a way to improve my life, and the best way I could think of was to affiliate with a Hidden Village and become a shinobi.'

The Hokage raised his eyebrows; he clearly didn't expect this answer.

'Ah. I don't hear that these days anymore.' He muttered to himself, before turning serious again, puffing out from his pipe. 'So, tell me again, your name was... Kaiya?'

'Yes, sir.' Kaiya confirmed.

'_Only_ Kaiya?'

Kaiya clenched her fist, her knuckles making cracking sounds, while her face twitching, a usual reaction for her when not pleased with something.

'I suppose.' Kaiya coldly answered through her teeth.

'But that's impossible! We all have a last name. There's no way you're an exception.' Akira butted in.

'Well, it looks like I am.' Kaiya clapped back, giving Akira an eyebrows-raised look, along with a gaze that overflowed with anger, something that surely shut the dark-haired boy off for the moment.

'I see.' The Hokage decisively said.

He couldn't disagree with Akira and he had to admit that the girl's refusal to answer made him curious, but all he could do was to try and find the reasoning behind the girl's judgement.

'Well,' he continued, 'I honestly don't see why I should refuse you. Anyone who wills to fairly work in order to survive just like you do deserve a place in Konoha.'

'Lord Hokage!' Akira spat out.

There must be some truth in it, Akira thought, and the old man must be going senile.

'Don't worry, Akira.' The Hokage said, raising a hand. 'I'm not going senile as some villagers say.'

Akira's jaw dropped and his eyes widening in utter shock, as the Hokage let a small smirk form on his face.

'Villagers say that he's senile?' Kaiya asked in surprise. _They dared to talk about their leader like that?_

'_Yes, but it's all a bluff, I say.' _Akira said, half-frozen in shame.

The Hokage let a chuckle escape his mouth. It was always fun to see people denying their gossip of him when in front of him. In truth, he could find some reasons to not let the girl stay, but her answers truly impressed him. She didn't let anything but her funny accent slip by, covering it with intelligent answers. If she only was able to drag the stone, then she might really be of use in Konoha, maybe even standing the chance of becoming part of the ANBU. There followed a few moments of silence, in which the Hokage arranged a few papers on his desk.

'Well,' The Hokage coughed as he put the last few papers away, 'if nobody has any more objections, I will take notice of a few important things.'

Kaiya's face remained still even though on the inside she glowed with joy, while Akira clenched his fists in annoyance.

'First of all, if you want to live in Konoha, you must be part of it.' The Hokage explained, now in a rather dead serious manner.

'I-I don't understand, sir.' Kaiya said.

'I don't expect you to do yet.' The Hokage puffed amused. 'You see, the ninja world is a very complex thing that doesn't base only on the training nor aptitudes you have for your missions. You'll meet people, not only fellow colleagues and teammates, but also friends for a lifetime, and you will, for sure, create different kind of bonds with them. Unlike other countries, here in Konoha, we have something that we call the Will of Fire.'

'The Will of- _what_?' Kaiya questioned, confused.

'The Will of Fire.' The Hokage smiled. 'It's a philosophy that was founded by one of Konoha's founders, Hashirama Senju. He became the First Hokage and shared his Will of Fire with other people around the time of Konoha's foundation. Do you have any idea of what it might mean?'

Kaiya thought for a moment, but she couldn't find anything.

'Not really, sir.' Kaiya eventually answered.

'Well, here's the deal,' The Hokage spoke. 'I will assign you with a team of genin shinobi, and by the time you become Jounin, I expect an answer.'

Kaiya hesitantly agreed. There would surely be a long path until she'd become a Jounin, let alone the thought if the old man would make it until then, taking his age and position in the village.

'Well,' the Hokage began as he started searching through his drawers. 'If you're going to live your shinobi life here, you may need this.'

He raised a blue bandana with a piece of metal in the form that had the symbol of Konoha craved in the middle.

'What's that?'

'It's called _forehead protector_.' The Hokage explained. 'Every village-affiliated shinobi in the world has it. It can define which village you're part of and, obviously enough, to protect your forehead by any attacks aimed there.'

Kaiya looked at Akira and noticed the same piece of blue material and metal proud fully resting on his forehead. She then looked at the Hokage and realised he didn't have one.

Forehead protector'?' Kaiya repeated.

'Indeed.' The Hokage confirmed as he carefully placed the forehead protector on his desk.

'Why don't you have one?' She blurted the question out, regretting it almost instantly.

'He's the Hokage! Of course, he doesn't wear-' Akira spat in annoyance.

'Akira, Akira, please.' The Hokage made a sign with his hand in an attempt to silence the boy down and waited until he did so. 'As Akira most kindly said, I'm the Kage of Konoha. A Kage wouldn't need a forehead protector as they would wear the symbolic clothing, showing their position in their hometown village.'

Kaiya looked at the forehead protector for a moment, before taking it in her hands, analyzing it.

'Thank you.' She simply said as she tied it to her head.

The Hokage smiled, understandingly.

'Now, am I right to assume that you don't have a shelter?' The Hokage asked, Kaiya nodding. 'Well, if I am right, there should be a free apartment close to Konoha's centre. I'm sure Akira would be glad to show you the way.'

'I wouldn't think so.' Kaiya muttered as Akira puffed in annoyance.

'Is there anything else, Akira?' The Hokage asked, mainly for the discussion to flow.

'No.'

'Then you two should go.'

'Indeed, we should. 'Akira agreed. 'The sun is setting and I honestly don't want somebody like _her _down Konoha's streets at night.'

Kaiya gave a short glance to Akira and was shot by a sharp gaze in return. She hoped that the Hokage didn't catch Akira's allusion, but of course, he did. He had years of experience with people, and disrespectful allusions weren't something rare.

'We'll be off, Lord Hokage.' Akira said, with a bow. 'Goodbye.'

The Hokage only nodded In response and watched as Akira exited the door, followed closely by Kaiya.

'Asumi-san.' The Hokage called out.

He didn't need to say any more. A young kuniochi appeared in front of him. She was tall with sand-coloured hair, a white bunny mask covering her face and a katana on her back.

'Lord Hokage.' She said with a bow.

'I need your help.' The Hokage spoke, with a calm urgent in his tone. 'I need you to keep an eye on someone for a while.'

'Who?' The woman asked, curious.

'Let me explain. You don't have to worry about going far away, as you'll only have to work here, in Konoha. You may as well have heard that I let a girl settle in Konoha.' The masked kuniochi nodded. 'You've got to keep an eye on her. She's around fourteen with brown hair and responds to the name of Kaiya. Keep an eye on her. See what she does for a while, analyse her behaviour and program, anything you can.'

Although she didn't really feel pleased with it, Asumi nodded. She didn't understand why the Hokage ordered _her _such thing. It wasn't any special mission, and a Jounin could do it just fine.

'Maybe you don't understand very well, Asumi.' The Hokage said, feeling the disbelief in the kunoichi. 'This is a quite delicate situation, as Konoha's safety depends on this mission. This mission would only fit an Anbu member, and you're the best candidate for this, taking your skills and the fact that you're a rookie, thus you still have that... _taste _for freedom just like every youngster in Konoha. Do you have any question?'

Asumi only shook her head.

'Good. You're off.'

The kunoichi disappeared as fast as she appeared, leaving the Hokage alone in his office. He sighed.

'What does a Hokage have to do in order to protect his village? He wondered aloud.

**_A/N_**

**Hey there! First of all, thank you for reading the first chapter of The Possessions of the Wild! What did you think of it?**

**Before you read any further, I just want to say that the book is STILL in work and the chapters won't be edited later on. So expect some clinginess or slightly out of character for the canon Naruto characters. **

**You might have noticed the background music I put at the media, right? Well, every now and then, I like putting a song I consider that it fits the chapter. The song 'Floating dead leaves'(the one in the media) is my favourite OST, for sure! What about you, guys?**

**Now, when the Hokage analysed Kaiya, I mentioned something about a sword, right? What was it called, again? A Taka... Taichi... ah, yes, a Tachi! A Tachi is a Japanese one-edged sword that's pretty short, compared to its brothers and sisters. Its length varies between 70 and 80 centimetres (from 27 to 31 1/2 inches) and it looks something like this:**

**Yep, that's a Japanese sword, folks. Well, I won't detain you from going to the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye! :)**


	2. 2 A suspiciously generous act

'And here we are.' Akira said in a rather tired manner as he pushed the door open. 'Voilà!'

Kaiya waited for him to enter at first, but seeing Akira's eyebrow-raised glare, she went ahead. At the sight of her apartment, Kaiya couldn't help but feel pleased; it was the best shelter she'd got in a long time. It was probably better than her own home. She was standing in a rather large room that was shared between a living room and a small kitchen. Everything was perfect, if the apartment didn't hold a smell damp smell that would make you think of a corpse.

The two teenagers began to cough in disgust as they made their way to the windows on the other side of the room with a desperate wish to open them. A few minutes pass and the air was, by now, much more breathable than before. Akira sighed.

'Well, I brought you here and you don't seem to complain about the apartment, so I'm of no use anymore.' Akira spoke, decisively. 'So, I guess I'll leave you to it.'

'Thank you.'

She knew that the boy didn't want to be in her company anymore, but she didn't mind it; the feeling was mutual. She walked along with him to the door and waited for the door to close, and when it did, she simply let her body drop to the ground, leaning her back and head on the wall behind her. A deep sigh escaped her.

'What would you think of me now, mother?' she said to herself.

Ever since she left, Kaiya couldn't help but think of what would her mother say of her actions. It was a tormenting thought, but the need to find out wasn't necessarily there. In a way, Kaiya knew it already. All she could hope for was that her mother moved on. She zoned out for what she thought to be a few minutes, allowing her thoughts to run freely for the first time in a while.

Yet, the five minutes turned into some hours and, by the time she came back to reality, it was already pitch dark and her she could hear her stomach protesting. She couldn't blame him, though. She _did _skip lunch after the rather cheap breakfast she had that morning.

As she scanned the room in now a more patient and detailed way, she found what she needed. Above the red couch under the windows, sitting on the wall, a clock ticked squinted at the way that the two clock hands were positioned and were finally able to tell what time it was. It was already fifteen past eleven and she was sure that all grocery stores would be closed by now. There goes her chance of filling her stomach just yet, Kaiya thought.

Kaiya rose to her feet and lost balance for a moment, nearly falling to the ground. She walked many kilometres that day and her soles were exhausted and sore by now, along with the rest of her muscles. Slowly but safely, Kaiya made her way to the red couch before letting herself drop on it. She made herself comfortable on the couch and, as a soft summer breeze made its way to her through the window, Kaiya fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.

Asumi made her way on the rooftops carefully, not letting the girl escape her gaze even for a second's time. It was morning, and Kaiya was walking down Konoha's market. Even though she rightfully assumed that the girl wouldn't leave her apartment during the night, Asumi preferred to be rather safe than sorry, deciding to spend the night on the rooftop. Although she felt a bit tired, during her ANBU training, she reached the performance of resisting up to three days and nights in a combat-like situation without closing an eye. For this mission, she chose to not wear her Anbu mask. It was for the better, she thought if she wanted to look ordinary.

As for Kaiya, she didn't notice nor felt anything strange just yet. The Hokage didn't inform her yet if she was assigned to a team or such things, so she thought that she could've as well get sd many things as possible settled while she could. She analysed her apartment in more detail that morning and took the time to enjoy a well-deserved shower. For time to pass, she wanted to get something to fill her wardrobe, but she was never able to think of anything but food when, so, for starters, she bought herself a piece of cheese and bacon pie the locals called Quiche Lorraine.

Making her way down the streets, Kaiya bumped into something, making her lose her balance. As expected, gravity did its job and pulled Kaiya down to the pavement. Looking up, Kaiya realised that she didn't bump into something, but rather _someone_. Next to her was a tall girl in her twenties with sand-colours hair, casual clothes and a black forehead protector.

'Oh, I'm so sorry!' The girl apologized. 'Let me help you.'

The girl lended Kaiya a hand, but Kaiya ignored the girl's gesture. She rose on to her feet and brushed off the dust that gathered on her. As she did that, Kaiya noticed how the girl was a little taller than her.

'I'm sorry!' The girl called out as Kaiya intended to leave.

'It's ok, don't worry 'bout it.' Kaiya responded coldly, looking over her shoulder.

The girl closed her eyes while breathing in for a second. She obviously was bugged by something, and Kaiya didn't understand what could it be. It was _she _who fell, not that girl. _Who knows_, Kaiya thought, _maybe it's something personal._

_'_Your knee is bleeding.' The girl blurted out as soon as she opened her eyes.

Kaiya looked down and it was true; a part of the material from her pants around her left knee was gone, revealing a scar that wasn't quite a view.

'Oh.' Kaiya simply reacted. She was used to getting hurt much enough to not be bothered by a bit of blood and a light scar like that. She shrugged. 'Whatever.'

The girl looked at the girl pleased as she let a small smile appear on her face. She wasn't some crybaby.

'Hey, I don't remember seeing you here. Are you new?' The girl asked.

'I guess you could say that.' Kaiya shrugged.

'I see. Well, I'm... Mishimoto Akari.' Asumi said. She hesitated on telling her name since she didn't know for sure if she should trust the girl. In the end, she preferred listening to the Anbu code and to not give her real name to others than her superior, colleagues and family. 'What's your name?'

Kaiya looked hesitantly at the so-called Akari. Why did she hesitate in telling her name? To question the better, why was she so extra in telling her name? She didn't need to be polite. She could just be happy that she accepted her apology and then get on with her life.

'I'm Kaiya.' Kaiya eventually said.

'_Just _Kaiya?' Asumi asked, without knowing that she touched a rather fragile subject.

'That's none of your business.' Kaiya nonchalantly brushed her off. 'For the matter, _yes_, just Kaiya.'

'Well, _just Kaiya_, if you're new, how about me showing you around, how does that sound?' Asumi offered.

Kaiya raised her eyebrows. She wasn't particularly friendly, and yet this girl willed to stick with her.

'Why would you? You don't owe me anything if you're worried.' Kaiya blandly stated.

'Oh, it's nothing like that. I'm just being nice, you know?' Asumi backfired, slowly cornering Kaiya.

'Aren't you, like, busy or somethin'? I take the' you're a ninja.' Kaiya said matter-of-factly, as she looked at Asumi's forehead protector.

'Oh, I'm busier than you could imagine.' Asumi spoke truthfully as she chuckled. 'But today's my free day. I get to rest, you know? _At last.'_

'And you're willing to waste some free day with some newbie?' Kaiya questioned, raising her eyebrows in disapproval, yet again.

'Oh, I don't know about you, but it's not like I've got anything better to do. Staying at home gets boring and there's nothing I enjoy more than a nice walk.' Asumi happily explained.

Kaiya puffed in amusement. She didn't meet many people like her. The people in her clan were nothing like that, as they mainly focused on surviving. Kaiya had to admit that the offer was pretty alluring. She could refuse and continue to find the way on her own, but if she accepted, she wouldn't feel so lost and she'd have as company someone who could help her to get out of her confused zone. If she accepted, she had nothing to lose.

'Alright.' Kaiya said. 'But first, I might need a new pair of leggings.'

A smile appeared on Asumi's face, only for her to let her head fall on her back and laugh moments later. Even though she knew the girl only for a few minutes, she couldn't help but feel amused by her being.

It's been two hours and Kaiya could say that, although she didn't feel as lost as before, there was still a rather big chance for her to get lost on Konoha's streets. Asumi showed her most of the village, and since they didn't take any breaks, their soles began to feel painful, making it harder and harder to walk with each step. It was already noon and it could've been safely said that the piece of pie Kaiya ate earlier that day didn't really satisfy her stomach.

As they walked down a street, Kaiya's nose was now fully hit by a smell of something that Kaiya quickly identified as a food that almost made her nostrils dance.

'What's that _amazing_ smell?' Kaiya asked as she stopped, for a second, from walking.

'Oh, you must be hungry, right?' The girl with the hair like sand asked with a chuckle. 'It's Ichiraku's ramen. As you can tell by its name, it's a ramen-specialised restaurant.'

'Ramen?' Kaiya said, as her eyes shined. Although she liked ramen, she never really got to eat it but on special occasions, which probably made it taste even better.

Asumi smiled, understandingly. The girl was so skinny that she had no doubts that she was underfed. In fact, Asumi was surprised that, although the fact that she only seemed fourteen at most, she was with just a finger or two smaller than her. She looked for at her for a moment, wondering if she was sick, but seeing her reaction at food made her relax; a sick person that's in a rather more serious state doesn't really have an appetite. She'll get better if she gains a bit of junk, Asumi thought.

'Yeah, let me show you where it is.' Asumi said, as she began walking, followed closely by Kaiya.

It didn't take more than fifty meters to get to a small building that had a small bar-like room on the ground floor with some papers with the restaurant's name spelled on them at the entrance. Kaiya and Asumi pushed the notes aside and went closer to the bar. On one of the seats sat a pink-haired girl with a red dress that had a white circle on her upper back, waiting for her bowl of ramen. Behind the bar sat a man in his mid to late forties, along with a young brown-haired woman about the same age as Asumi, both wearing the typical chef white clothing.

'Welcome to Ichiraku's Ramen!' The old man joyfully greeted. 'Take a seat! With what can I serve you?'

'Uh... I don't know.' Kaiya said as she awkwardly seated herself next to the girl. 'I've never been here before.'

'I see. Well, take a look at our menu.' The man said as he handed Kaiya a piece of paper within a plastic cover.

Asumi looked at the clock on the wall and breathed in sharply.

'Is there something wrong, Akari-san?' Kaiya asked, with a slight feeling of worry. She could bear with her sore feet and hunger a little more if she needed to.

'Oh, nothing that should concern you.' Asumi said, shaking her in disapproval. 'I'm sorry that I have to do this, but I'll have to leave you to eat alone. I, along with my teammates, have to see the Hokage.'

'I thought that this was your free day?' Kaiya furrowed her eyebrows.

'Yeah, well, you may or may not realised this, but you're never truly able to rest when you're a ninja.' Asumi shrugged. 'Well, I have to leave now if I don't want to be late. Goodbye!'

Before she exited, Asumi shortly waved and Kaiya repeated the action. After Asumi left, Kaiya realised that she felt a little lonely, something quite unusual for her as she spent most of her time on her own.

'Have you decided on your order?' The young woman asked.

'Oh, not really.'

The young woman lightly puffed in annoyance before walking away.

'Hey,' the girl next to her shyly tried to get her attention. 'I heard that you don't know what to order?'

'Yeah.' Kaiya said, a little surprised by the approach.

'I would recommend you the Miso Chashu pork ramen.'

'The Miso Cha- what?'

'Misho Chashu pork ramen. It's one of the best, in my opinion.'

'Alright. I'm gonna go with your word.' Kaiya said, relieved for getting a suggestion, before turning to the man. 'Sir, I'd like an... what was it called, again?'

'Miso Chashu pork ramen.' The pink-haired girl added.

'Exactly.'

'A Miso Chashu will it be, then.' The man said, before turning away.

'My name's Sakura Haruno.' The girl presented herself as she stretched her hand towards Kaiya.

'I'm Kaiya.' Kaiya said, looking at the girl with her eyebrows narrowed, before hesitantly responding to her gesture.

'Kaiya? It's a pretty name.' Sakura complimented, trying to ignore what she thought to be rudeness coming from the girl.

'Thanks, I guess.'

'Here's your bowl, Sakura. Enjoy.' The young woman smiled, as she put a bowl of ramen in front of Sakura.

'Thank you, Ayame-San.'

Sakura took a pair of chopsticks and split them in two and, as she willed to start eating, she saw Kaiya's gaze on her bowl. Seeing that she noticed, Kaiya moved her gaze to a poster nearby. Sakura sighed and put her chopsticks down.

'Aren't you gonna eat it?' Kaiya asked while turning around, confused by Sakura's gesture.

'I'll wait for your ramen to arrive as well.'

Kaiya smiled in appreciation. Other people would've not given a single penny if she was eating or not. Sakura analysed Kaiya and it was only then that the question popped; how comes she didn't recognise her?

'Hey, um, would you mind if I ask something?' Sakura began, unsure of how to approach the situation.

'You just did.' Kaiya pointed out, making Sakura over blink in shock while remaining speechless. 'But I'll let you ask me another question.'

Sakura sighed in relief.

'Well, you may figure it out already, but we don't know each other.'

'Yeah... What's with that?' Kaiya asked.

She had a feeling about where this was going, and she wasn't very happy about it. _Better get used to it Kaiya_, she thought. If she was going to live in this town, it was only normal for people to be curious. Just as Sakura wanted to say something, she was interrupted. The young woman called Ayame came with a bowl of ramen that was placed in front of Kaiya.

'There you go.' The lady said as she forced a smile. 'Enjoy.'

'Thank you.'

The woman only nodded and disappeared as fast as she appeared. Kaiya split her chopsticks and began eating, followed by Sakura. As expected, the ramen was delicious. Anything is tasty when you're hungry, in fact. A few minutes pass and the girls did nothing but eat.

'What did you want to ask me?' Kaiya asked after they finished their meals.

'Well, I was wondering. Did you go to Konoha's Academy?'

Intuition is, as expected, always right, Kaiya thought.

'No.' Kaiya sighed. 'I only moved to Konoha recently. Matter of fact, I just arrived yesterday afternoon.'

Sakura's eyes widened in shock. She never heard such a thing before.

'Really? But why? Didn't you have a home? What about your family? Didn't you live in a village?' Sakura simply blurted out the questions without being able to control herself.

'I'm sorry to disappoint, but I won't bore you with my life story. No offence, but it's not like you'd understand or relate to it, and if you don't at least understand something, then the information is meaningless.'

Sakura looked at the brown-haired girl, unsure of what to say. She would ask her more, but the answer that the girl gave her not only gave her curiosity, but also a self-conscious feeling that made her regret shooting so many questions that were rather personal. Kaiya didn't seem to mind her silence, though. Her eyes were set towards her empty bowl, although it was clear that she wasn't interested in the drops of remaining ramen. As they remained silent, the paper notes moved and an audible _thud_! could be heard on the chair next to Sakura. Kaiya and Sakura turned their heads to see a tall, silver-haired man wearing a mask and a blue headband protector that covered his left eye. He gave them a short look with his visible eye before turning his attention to the old man, greeting him. The old man took the masked man's order and began preparing, yet again, some ramen.

'I... should leave.' Kaiya mumbled quietly enough for Sakura to have trouble hearing her. 'How much does my ramen cost, sir?'

The old man turned to Kaiya and took her bowl.

'You had a Misho Chashu pork, right?' The old man asked as Kaiya nodded. 'That would be ten Ryo.'

Kaiya's face twitched, like every time she didn't like something. She already was on a tight budget.

'I only have seven.' Kaiya spoke with a slight hint of worry in her voice.

'Then how are you going to pay?'

The old man sighed and began mumbling something about the kids these days.

'I'll pay for her.' A voice could be heard.

The three heads turned to the silver-haired man.

'E-Excuse me, sir?' The old man asked, taking what he heard for mistaken.

'I said I'll pay for her.' The man repeated as he began searching his pockets. 'How much was it? Ten Ryo?'

The old man nodded, still in shock.

'S-Sir, you don't have to.' Kaiya said, shook by the man's actions.

Not only that he was a stranger, but also the first being to do anything for her. Nobody really did something for her, not even her own mother.

'Oh, don't worry. This isn't some favour, so I don't expect anything in return from you, alright?' He said as the skin around his visible eye wrinkled, something that made Kaiya hope to be a smile.

The silver-haired man gave the old man the yen he asked for. The old man blinked a few times, mouthing uncomprehending words before going in the kitchens saying, almost yelling, 'Ayame, you won't believe this!'.

'Eh, thank you.' Kaiya said to the masked man before rising to her feet and fleeing away.

The masked man sighed as he looked towards Sakura.

'I hope you have enough money. I'm not some never-ending money bag, you know?'

'Don't worry.' Sakura said, before paying her own meal and leaving.

**A/n**

**Hi, guys! How's it going? So, I have to say, **_**wow**_**. This was a chapter that's almost double rather than my usual chapters, this one with a little over 3000 words. **

**Anyway, what do you guys think of this chapter? What about the story so far? And do you think Asumi was right when choosing a fake name rather than being honest with Kaiya?**

**See you in the next chapter!**


	3. 3 Teaming up

_"Enter."The Hokage said._

_It was noon and he expected an particular Anbu member. Through the wooden doors came an young woman with sand coloured hair, any sweetness that may have been on her expression disappeared, leaving place to the serious._

_"Good day, Lord Hokage. I came in to report over the you-know-which case." She said as she bowed in respect._

_"Ah, Asumi, coming at last." The Hokage spoke, curiosity sparkling in his eyes. "I see that you're still as doubtful as ever of my eavesdropping-free doors. Before you report, may I wonder why your mask isn't covering your face, like always?"_

_"I decided to have a deeper and clearer view into the situation." Asumi explained. "I took cover as an ordinary chuunin ninja named Akari."_

_"Chuunin ninja? Akari?" The Hokage raised his eyebrows. "But isn't that...?"_

_"Yes." Asumi lowered her head. She didn't enjoy talking about that subject._

_"I see." The Hokage nodded understandingly, very well aware of the situation. "Well, go on with your report."_

_Asumi sighed in relief. "The girl is just as you described; tall, dark-brown hair, onyx eyes and around the age of fourteen. Her appearance is seemingly normal, but I felt an weird chakra her."_

_"Weird?" The Hokage raised his eyebrows._

_"Yes, it's nothing I remember meeting. It reminds me of the woods. Now that I think about it... I think it's familiar with the Inuzuka's type of chakra, but only by little. Unlike the Inuzuka's, the girl's feels much more... _**_wild_**_."_

_"I understand." The Hokage nodded, thoughtful. "Anything else?"_

_"Only one thing. Although I wasn't able to find anything much about her past, I don't think she was any princess or someone important. You may have noticed that her appearance was quite unkempt. She truly seems to be starved. I'm surprised she got this tall, to be honest. Maybe it's in her family."_

"_Starved, you say?" The Hokage looked at Asumi with concerned eyes._

"_She looks quite anorexic if you ask me, and you must've seen her when she smelled some food. Before heading here, I left her at Ichiraku's Ramen. I'm sure you know about that restaurant, it's the one that that jinchuriki boy attends often."_

"_Yes, Asumi, I know the restaurant. I've actually payed it a visit a few times, actually. Pretty good food and-' the Hokage stopped when seeing the shinobi's look. "Anyway, you should continue keep an eye on her for awhile."_

"L_ord Hokage, may I ask something?" Asumi hesitantly asked for permission._

"O_f course. What is it?'_

_'Did you find any jounin willing to take her in their team?'_

_'That's something I wanted to inform you about. Your mission might be... getting a little easier here.'_

_'How?'_

_'Listen.' The Hokage scolded. ' Taking from what you said, I think might know an fitting team for her.'_

_'Really?'_

_'Yes. I'll inform the Jounin about our... _**_situation_**_, just in case, and they'll take your job from there when on missions. Is there anything else you or I need to know, Asumi?' The Hokage asked, as Asumi shook her head. 'Well, if everything's clear for you and there's nothing else to tell me, you're off.'_

_The young shinobi nodded and disappeared through thin air._

Kaiya quietly at her table, enjoying an piece of grilled meat that she prepared herself for dinner. Although it only was her first day in Konoha, she barely had time to catch her breath. In the morning, she bumped into Akari who willed to show her Konoha, then met Sakura, who shamelessly asked her some incredibly personal questions, and then had to walk around Konoha for hours on end, dividing her last few ryo to buy some food for the following few days.

As she ate, she suddenly heard an very light sound from her living room's windows.

_Thud!_

She thought it was just her imagination, so she simply brushed it off, continuing to eat her food without worries.

_Thud! Thud!_

This has to be a joke, Kaiya thought. She did, in the end, live on the second floor of the building. No normal being should be able to reach her windows. She let her food down on the counter and walked to the window. Much to her relax, there was no person at the window. Instead, it was a pigeon. Why would an pigeon knock on her window? _Knock on her window?,_ Kaiya thought. That's absurd.

That until she noticed something odd about the pigeon. It had something that looked like a small piece of paper attached to one of its legs. Kaiya opened the window and almost regretted it, as the pigeon crazily flapped its wings as it entered the apartment, landing on Kaiya's stretched right hand as she tried to defend herself from the unexpected attack.

Kaiya remained still for a few moments and, seeing that the pigeon wouldn't make any movements, she slowly lowered her hands, making the pigeon now be at the same height as her eyes. The pigeon chirped a few times as it tilted its blue head from a side to another in curiosity.

Kaiya looked at the attachment the bird was wearing, realising that the bird was an messenger pigeon. For a second, Kaiya considered the thought that the pigeon might've just got lost, but she realised that the chance would be very small. She detached the piece of folded paper from the pigeon's leg and, as she planned to walk to the window to set the bird free, she got interrupted.

_Crash!_

The pigeon flapped it's wings in an panicked manner and blindly found its way to his escape through the open window. Turning around, Kaiya could see the unfinished piece of meat on the ground, surrounded by thousands of small pieces that once formed an white plate.

'What the-' Kaiya exclaimed in surprise.

Kaiya stared at the place where the piece of meat was for a few moments, before beginning to clean up.

'If we continue this way, I'll run out of plates. A set of good plates is quite expensive, and I'm on a tight budget, ya know?' Kaiya said aloud, as she finished cleaning the remaining pieces of plate.

That was when the piece of paper Kaiya left on the table flew off to the ground. It could've been wind, of course, but Kaiya's opinion seemed to differ. Although most people would try and find a reasonable answer to it all, Kaiya always believed that it wasn't something ordinary. After all, she grew with these beliefs.

Kaiya threw the rests of meat and plate pieces and picked up the piece of paper And carefully unfolded it. It turned out to be an square-cutted piece of paper with an generous amount of writing.

_Good afternoon, Kaiya-san._

_I hope that Kotetsu, our messenger pigeon, came in good health bringing you this message. The point of this message is for you to be in informed over your career as an Konoha shinobi. I've talked to the few Jounins specially assigned for training young shinobi, and I found the right team for you. You're expected tomorrow at 9 a.m. In front of the Main Building to meet with your team. _

_P.S. You may want to create your ninja ID. If so, talk to your team leader about it._

_The Third Hokage_

Kaiya leaned on the table, her cheeks twitching. She was fine to do some missions in order to earn her bread, but she lacked teamwork. Growing up mainly on her own, she had to do things on her own most of the time, something that now turned into an lifestyle. Kaiya sighed, as she massaged the muscles next to her eyes. She hoped that, whoever her teammates would be, they'd give her some space, to the very least.

Kaiya hurried down Konoha's streets in agony, bumping into different civilians who'd yell after her in anger. Although it was unusual for it to happen, her body disrupted its biological clock and slept with about two more hours than it normally would. Luckily for Kaiya, although she made it on spot, nobody was there yet. Great, she thought, as she leaned on to the building's wall, catching her breath. It was all quiet for a few minutes, before Kaiya's ears catching something that she identified as footsteps.

'Come on, Lee! We've almost made it!' An voice yelled.

'Yes, sir!' Another voice responded.

Kaiya turned around and her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes widening almost instantly at what she saw. There was an small group formed of two boys and a girl about her age, along with an man somewhere in his 30's. It would actually seem completely normal if the man and one of the boys, the two resembling each other almost painfully, weren't each wearing an green latex suit while racing each other to the Main Building on their hands, leaving the other two behind. As they finally made it to where Kaiya was, the two raised to their feet and high-fived eachother.

'Guy-sensei! I finally made it! Six kilometres using only my arms!' The boy said, excitedly.

Sensei?, Kaiya thought. Then they must be one of those teams that the Hokage talked about.

'Good job, Lee!' The man called Guy congratulated, giving an thumbs up along with an large smile that showed off his enormous teeth.

'Come _on_, guys! We'll never make it in time if you two walk so slow!' Lee yelled to his teammates, who were not hurrying in any way to get there.

'An smart person would never hurry on their way the way you do, Lee.' The other boy answered while getting some of his long hair out of his face, making Lee frown.

'Neji...' An girl with her hair arranged in two buns and dressed in Chinese-type clothes scoffed.

Neji only shrugged and continued his way where Lee was, unbothered. Kaiya watched the whole situation half-amused. Maybe it was too early for her to assume anything, but she felt an slight rivalry between the two boys. The three kids started talking, but when their sensei said something Kaiya couldn't comprehend, they turned their attention on Kaiya. Seeing all the gazes being on her, she looked away.

'Good morning.' Lee now spoke louder and more reserved. 'Are you Kaiya?'

The girl mumbled something that sounded like _Of course she is, _while Kaiya turned around at the sound of her name.

'Eh, yes. Can I help you?' Kaiya asked, hesitantly. Most of the time, whenever she was approached by someone, it didn't really end well.

'Well, it's more of how _we _can help you.' Guy greeted, walking towards Kaiya. 'You're waiting for your team to arrive, am I right?'

Kaiya looked at him wide-eyed. For all she knew, if an stranger most randomly approached and asked you personal questions like your program of plans, you weren't on safe ground. She quickly lied, shaking her head in disapproval, making Guy snort in amusement. Even if he already was curious of who the new kid might be, what the Hokage told him just added more fuel to the fire.

'You don't have to worry, my friend.' Guy said. 'Since _we_ are your team.'

'Uh...' Was all that Kaiya could say. She was still unsure of the whole situation.

'You're not an easy one, are ye?' Guy said, as he started searching through one of his small bags. 'Here.'

He picked an hard piece of paper with an official look and shoved it in under Kaiya's nose. She looked at the paper and looked at the title.

'Team.. Guy?' Kaiya read aloud.

'Mhm, that's us.' The girl with buns confirmed.

Under the title, there were five names, one of each member of the team, along with somewhat information and a photo. Much to Kaiya's surprise, her name appeared there, too. Her name, and that would be it. No photo of her nor any information.

'Did this confirm it to you?' Guy asked, as he took and folded the piece of paper back in one of his pockets.

'I guess.' Kaiya mumbled, almost uncomprehendingly.

'Alright boys.' The sensei called.

'And girls.' The girl added.

'Right. Sorry, girls.' He apologised. 'Anyway, the Hokage demanded to see us, in order to give us another mission. Are you ready, guys?'

'Yes, sir!' The boy named Lee responded enthusiastically, followed by some mumbles coming from the other two.

'Are you guys ready for an mission full of _youth _and-'

'Sensei...' The girl sighed, exasperated.

Guy almost stopped, but encouraged and joined by Lee, he continued to cheer for his upcoming mission of youth.

'Haven't you learned just yet, Tenten?' The boy named Neji asked. 'He'll never abandon his _youthful life.'_

'Guess you're right.' Tenten sighed in defeat, before turning to Kaiya. 'Please don't misunderstand Guy-sensei. He isn't stupid, I can promise you, but he has an thing for...'

Tenten couldn't find the right terms for it. How could she explain her sensei's odd behaviour without having any misunderstandings?

'It's fine, I get it.' Kaiya calmed her down. 'It isn't the first time I see someone like him, and I have to say that he's actually decent. At least his son seems to be into it, since, if I am right to assume, nobody else is.'

The three turned for a second to look at Guy and Lee cheering for an eternal life of youth.

'Son? What son?' Neji asked in confusion, narrowing his eyes.

'That boy, I forgot his name...' Kaiya made a sign with her head to where Lee was.

'You mean Lee?' Tenten asked, Kaiya nodding in response. 'Oh, they aren't related.'

'They're not?' Kaiya wondered. 'But they look so...'

'Similar? Yeah, I know, but they aren't related. Not at all.' Neji answered, nodding in understanding.

'Are you sure?' Kaiya double-checked. 'Like, isn't Guy, at least, that annoying uncle or something like that?'

'Not at all. That's just as far as I know, though.' Tenten jokingly said, having Neji escape one of his rare amused puffs.

Guy and his students entered one of the rooms from the Main Building, where the Hokage along with an brown-haired man that had an scar over his nose and upper-cheeks sat at an table full of papers. As she entered, Kaiya was hit by an almost painfully familiar smell. She looked around and noticed that indeed, her team wasn't the only one there. She noticed about three other groups of three kids around her age, each accompanied by an adult who, for sure, was their team leader. She tried to figure out who could hold such an familiar smell, but she couldn't make any familiar faces out. Noticing her presence, all the students began to whisper things, asking their their senseis questions. She scanned them all and, for a second, her eyes locked on something seemingly familiar.

The slim figure of an white-haired man who wore a mask covering most of his face stranded next to an seemingly normal group formed of a blonde boy with three black stripes on both checks and a huge grin, an dark haired boy with blue clothing and an irritated, retained expression and a pink-haired girl in an red dress who stared a her in awe. For a second, she thought that the familiar smell came from them, but it was proved wrong as an rather sharp smell came from their direction. As she studied the group, Kaiya was struck by an thundering headache. She grunted, gaining even more unwanted attention than she ever wanted.

'Are you okay?' Tenten whispered.

'Yeah.' Kaiya answered in the same tone, preferring not to look into Tenten's eyes.

Kaiya looked back at the pink-haired girl, then the man one more moment. She saw her and the man before, didn't she?

'What is it, Sakura-chan~?' The blonde boy asked, noticing the girl's shocked look.

Sakura! Now she remembered! It was the same girl that irritated Kaiya the day before at that ramen restaurant, along with that man who payed her meal since she didn't have enough money. In return, Kaiya narrowed her eyebrows in rejection, before jerking her head away. As she turned her head, she could swear that she saw, with the corner of her eye, that the masked man shot her an look.

'Good morning, Guy. 'The Hokage's voice made everyone snap back to reality. 'I see that you found your student without incident.'

A few teachers began to giggle, but stopped as the Hokage's gaze fell upon them.

'Of course not!' Guy barked, almost making Kaiya jump. 'On the way here, we had an most _youthful talk-'_

Kaiya bit her tongue in an attempt to prevent anything she might say to her teacher, as Hokage raised his hand, silencing Guy and everyone that began, yet again, to giggle.

'Well, I'm glad to hear that, but I'm afraid that you'll have to tell me about it some other time.' The Hokage explained kindly. 'For now, I have to assign you to an mission.'

'Great! I can't wait-' Lee began in his excited tone, but seeing the gazes of his teammates, he preferred to keep his thoughts quiet for now.

'So, seeing your student's aptitudes, I'll trust you with an C-ranked mission.'

'C-rank?!' Tenten exclaimed, as murmurs of shock were heard from the other teams. 'But we're only mere genins! Even that, only for an bare four months.'

Kaiya looked at the perplexed faces on her teammates. Even though she never really made any plans on it before, she learned about mission and ninja rankings from the shinobi world. She knew that D-ranked missions were the easiest missions, meant for people like her, genins, and A-ranked and S-ranked missions were for the best jounins, or even the ANBU, at times. Seeing that the mission they were given was a C-rank, she didn't worry herself as much as she normally would on such themes.

'Indeed, but I think that since you gained a bit of experience, you may want to gain some more, in order to prepare yourself for the Chuunin exams, if you wish to attend.' The Hokage said, his gaze resting for a second on Kaiya's.

'A-Are you sure, Lord Hokage?' Guy asked, shocked.

'Never been more sure.' An smiled grew on the Hokage's face.

'What's the mission about?' Guy sighed. He wasn't very worried about Neji, TenTen and Lee, as he was sure that they could handle it, but, taking what the Hokage told him the day before, he hoped that his first mission as an five-man cell wouldn't be that hard, giving him more opportunities to see and analyse Kaiya's behaviour.

'Well, you have an scroll here with more details on it,' the Hokage spoke, as he handed Guy an scroll on which sat a few sentences and numbers, most likely symbolising what kind of mission that it was. 'but long story short, I'll need you do an delivery to the Village Hidden in the Sand.'

'Lord Hokage, isn't that-' An male voice could be heard from behind Kaiya.

Kaiya turned around and realised that the owner of the voice was an man in his mid- thirties with dark-brown hair a tanned skin, and a cigarette in his mouth.

'Yes, Asuma, it is _that _mission.' The Hokage confirmed, looking into the man's eyes.

'But-' the man began, but stopped himself.

'You don't need to worry.' The Hokage assured the man. 'I'm sure that they handle it well. Am I right, Guy?'

'Of course! You won't even realise we were gone!' Guy approved, proud of the praise that the Hokage brought him. He wasn't very sure of why Asuma was so shocked, but if the Hokage chose to give it to his team, it was nothing that they couldn't handle. He took the scroll with the information in his hands. 'Thank you, lord Hokage. Let's go, guys(no pun intended)!'

Neji, Tenten and Lee agreed in an more energic way, while Kaiya preferred to only nod, along with an 'hn'. After the group exited the room, the tensity that grew in the air seemed to die down, but only by little. Asuma looked at the Hokage with his eyes wide open filled with shock, while one of his students, and blond-haired girl with purple clothing, looked at him worryingly.

'What's wrong, Asuma-sensei?' The girl asked. 'You don't have to worry, ya know? I'm sure we'll get an C-rank mission sometime, too!'

'It's not that, Ino.' The man shook his head. 'It's just that what Guy got isn't an C-rank, but rather an B- maybe even A-rank.'

**A/N**

**Heeey, everyone! How's it going?**

_**So**__, _**another chapter's out. I'm really excited for this one because it's the beginning of ****_The possessions of the wild_****'s first arc! How crazy's **_**that**_**? **

**Now, I don't know if any of y'all read my other book, ****_Roses have Thorns_****, so I'll say it here, too. As many of you know, school started recently, diminishing my free time considerably. You don't have to worry much, as I'll try to pull out an chapter per week, but sometimes it may take a little longer.**

**Anyway, so I thought of this! For every chapter, I'll give you guys an Naruto-related question.**

**Question of the Chapter:**

_**If you were to put Kaiya on another team, in which one would you?**_

**See you in the next chapter!**

**~Avery**


	4. The prospect of the mission

.

_**Hey, guys! If you wonder about the song above, I thought it fitted with the fight in this chapter. So, if you decide to play it while reading that part, I think that it fitted with this chapter. Enjoy the chapter! :)**_

'So let me get this straight.' Kaiya decisively said. 'We need to deliver some... _seeds _to the Sand Village?'

It was one day after that they got the mission that the group of five exited Konoha, carrying an well secured skin luggage, ignoring the looks the gate guards gave Kaiya. Kaiya looked at the scroll for the hundredth time and felt unsure.

'Indeed.' Guy confirmed.

'I don't see how this is C-rank.' Kaiya mumbles more to herself, ignoring the fact that the others could very well hear her. 'If it was after me, that mission would've not been C-ranked, but rather D-ranked from the very damn beginning.'

'Well, although it isn't stated very clear,' Tenten said, as she took the open scroll from Kaiya's hands. 'it says that they're some sort of valorous seeds.'

'Seeds that are so valorous that they get an C-rank?' Neji puffed. 'That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard, and believe me, i hear tons of stuff.'

'When will you learn that some things are valued ways other than you realise?' Lee exclaimed, obviously bothered by Neji's comment. 'All youthful things-'

'When will _you _learn to shut up, you _idiot_?

Lee attempts to kick Neji, but Neji defended himself with somewhat ease, throwing Lee a few metres away. Lee quickly gets on his feet and wants to attack again, but the result remained the same. Kaiya looked at Guy with a slight tone of worry on her face.

'Shouldn't you stop them, or...? They'll get exhausted before we even get to begin.' She pointed out, in an almost matter-of-factly tone.

'Oh, don't worry.' Guy smiled. 'Lee is one ball of endless energy, and Neji is a pretty good defender and chakra conservator. Besides, they never fight more than fifteen minutes.'

Kaiya watched as Lee repeatedly tried to hit Neji, only to be almost mercilessly pushed a few meters back over and over. She glanced at Tenten who walked down the forest path, unbothered by the two boys' bickering. Noticing Kaiya's questioning look, she puffed in amusement, letting an small smile appear on her face.

'You better get used to it.' Tenten said in an amused voice. 'They're always like this, provoking each other.'

'Oh?'

Kaiya looked at the boys confused at first, but then understood. The two truly didn't seem to put on all they've got. They simply tested each other, in order to see who was the strongest. As she came to the realisation, an smirk escaped and appeared on her face. Tenten noticed and, although she was always an curious being, she preferred to not question the brown-haired girl. In truth, seeing the two boys bickering like that remembered her of someone from her clan, something that immediately made Kaiya feel overwhelmed by guilt and regret.

'Come on, boys!' Guy suddenly yelled over his shoulder to the slow-advancing boys, startling both Kaiya and Tenten. 'The girls have a better pace than you two, and I'm sure they won't wait much for you. Keep up or you'll be left behind!'

Neji pushed Lee away one last time, before shaking his head in disapproval with an puff.

'Neji!' Lee yelled, crawling out of an bush, with leaves, dirt and thin sticks in his dark, bowl-cutted hair. 'Don't be a coward and come back! Let's do this until the end!'

'Sorry, Lee.' Neji said while turning to Lee for a moment, with an pretty believable apologetic string in his voice. 'Maybe another time.'

Lee cleaned his hair as much as he could and catched up to the rest of the group with an impressive speed.

'Say again, Guy-sensei, how long would this mission last?' Lee asked, shooting his teacher an wide-eyed curious look.

'If my memory doesn't fail me, this should take about a week, taking into account one day to rest.' Guy answered, scratching his chin.

'Yep, Guy-sensei's right.' Tenten confirmed, looked at the scroll from her hands.

'Can I see it?' Neji, who walked next to Tenten, asked, while making a sign with his head towards the scroll.

'Sure.' Tenten shrugged as she handed the scroll to Neji.

Neji studied the scroll for a few moments, before begging to rub an particular place on the scroll with his sleeve.

'Neji, what are you doing?' Tenten asked.

'The scroll's dirty.' He stated bluntly, as he focused on rubbing the scroll.

'Dirty?' Guy asked, jokingly, assured that the boy was just pulling a prank on him, due to his fresh youth.

'It can't be dirty.' Kaiya narrowed her eyes. 'I'm sure the officials keep the scrolls safe-'

Kaiya blocked, realising that Neji was, in fact, right. The place he was rubbing was occupied by an blue-ish smug under which, due to Neji's work, could now be deciphered some writing.

'Oh? What's writing there?' Tenten asked, letting her curious self take over her.

Neji analysed the writing for a few moments, as his face fell harder and harder by the second.

'Guys, there must be something wrong.' He stated.

'Wrong? What could go wrong?' Guy asked, turning to Neji.

'We were supposed to do an C-rank. This is B-ranked.'

'Oh my-' Was the only thing Tenten could say, as she was cut off by Guy.

'What? Let me see that.' Guy said, snatching the scroll from Neji. 'I know you guys might(no pun intended) want to be joking with me, but this-'

'We're not joking, sensei!' Tenten cried.

Guy looked at the scroll and it didn't take long to realise that it was, indeed, true what his students said. It could be seen clear as day that the mission ranking was changed with some ink, in the obvious hope to be confused.

'We should go back in the village, sensei.' Tenten suggested. 'I'm sure they'll give us-'

'We won't return anywhere.' Guy said in an decisive tone. 'I've been on quite a few B-ranked missions, and I can say for sure that you guys will be able to handle this one.'

'But sensei-' Tenten began to say something, but was stopped by Lee's hand that covered her mouth.

'Don't worry, Tenten!' He said, lacking any worry about the whole situations. 'If Guy-sensei says that we can do it, then we sure can!'

Guy sighed in relief. Sometimes, he couldn't find the right words to show how grateful he was for Lee, for his unreplacabale student, being so devoted. Although it was true was he said before, there was another reason why he'd refuse returning to Konoha. Even though they were close to the Land of Fire's borders with the Land of Wind and the fact that Konoha was only five hours away, he always was an proud perfectionist, and to step on his pride and return to the Hokage to ask for an easier mission was one of the last things he'd do. He wouldn't say that to his students, of course. All he could say for now was that he was glad that Lee was there, covering his back as much as he could with devotion and respect.

Neji and Tenten sighed and tried to focus on anything but their misunderstood teacher, Lee was bouncing around excitedly while Kaiya preferred to keep her thoughts to herself, while her mind wandered off.

'Shit! Guys, watch out!' Neji suddenly yelled, while jumping a few meters back.

Everyone turned their heads in surprise, and Kaiya saw that an kunai was planted where Neji was moments before.

'Neji, are you-' Tenten began, but was pulled aside by Lee as a _wheew _passed Kaiya's right ear.

'_Run._' Kaiya heard someone's quiet voice next to her.

Kaiya blinked a few times, coming back to reality. She obeyed the order she got, not dwelling on who or what said it. She sprinted a few steps back just in time, as another light _wheew _could be heard as another kunai appeared out of nowhere, missing Kaiya only by a few millimetres. Kaiya looked around and, although it a happened in a matter of seconds, her teammates and teacher were standing tense, trying to figure out from where the Kunais came from.

'Is everyone alright?' Guy asked concerned, giving short glances to where his students were.

'Y-yes.' The three genin confirmed.

Kaiya thought she felt something next to her right eye and put her fingers there in attempt to find out, but restrained them quickly as soon as her fingertips touched her skin.

'Shit.' Kaiya murmured, as she looked at her right hand.

Her fingers were covered in an small amount of dripping blood. She wasn't sure how it got there at first, but looking back, she assumed that it must've been the second kunai that almost stabbed Tenten that had scratched her.

'Oh, you _poor, poor, things._' An pity full female voice could be heard. 'Temon, are you sure that they're the ones?'

'God dammit, Kana! Now they know that we're here.' Another voice, now belonging to an male, answered in an angered way.

'It's not like we already tried to kill them, right?' The first voices stated ironically.

'Kill?' Kaiya asked, the first one waking up from her fear-frozen state. '_We have to get out of here_.'

Her teammates and sensei only nodded and started to back away as fast as they could in attempt to escape, only for their path to be blocked by the slim figure of an blonde spiky-haired, young woman in an black costume with pink stripes, carrying a bag and a odachi on her back and an red bow in her hair, along with an crazed smile on her.

'Your speed is quite impressive, I'll give you that.' She said, faking her impressed tone.

'For some genins, of course.' An slightly familiar male voice added, as some bushes nearby trembled, leaving space for another figure to appear.

This time an short, blue-haired man in an black cloak appeared. Unlike the woman, his appearance didn't stand out in any way. He had an round, pale face, blue hair that hardly reached his shoulders and an calm, almost bored expression.

There couldn't be said anything about his body, as even his toes would be covered in an simple black cloak. The woman puffed amused at the man's statement, only for letting her head on her back as an crazed laughter escaped her mouth.

Everyone, including her partner, looked at the woman wide-eyed. Noticing that even the birds stopped chirping, she controlled her laughter and stopped it.

'Alright, alright.' She told the blue-haired man, raising her hands in defeat before turning to the small team while putting her bag on the ground. While she did so, an kunai fell out. 'So here's the deal. Why don't you lot give us that luggage? You guys can go home and we'll take care of the rest.'

The tree genin looked at Guy, who was holding the luggage.

'I don't see it necessary. Mind giving me any reason _at all _for doing so?' Guy asked, his eyebrows uniting, their appearance now being very close to an squirrel's tail.

In the blink of an eye, Guy breathed in sharply, as an kunai was held close to his neck.

'Now let's get things _crystal clean, _shall we?' The voice of the blue-haired man said, close Guy's left ear. 'First of all, you _don't_ disrespect Kana-chan.'

'_Kana-sama to you, and everybody else, _you _idiot!_' The woman named Kana yelled, triggered by the suffix used.

If they weren't in the situation they were, Kaiya might've snorted, but taking the danger, humour was the last thing Kaiya could think of.

'_Relax.' _The man told Kana. 'Let's just get down to business, a'right?'

They could all feel the tension in the air and Kaiya's body refused to move an single centimetre, but, noticing that Neji's wide-eyed gaze sat on her, her brain started to work again. With her gaze, she did the best she could and asked Neji what did he want, something that, luckily enough, he catched on spot. In response, he kept tracking a line that went from to next to Kaiya. She followed the line with her head and understood what he meant. She took an moment to make some calculations, before moving. In the blink of an eye, Kaiya disappeared without a sound.

'Where is she?' Kana asked, narrowing her eyebrows.

'Who?' The blue haired man asked.

'The girl.'

'The- Kana, I think you eyesight is going bad. The girl's _right there_.' The man stated, looking at Tenten.

'Not _her, _Temon. The other one.'

Temon looked around and realised that his partner was right. The squad was made of five people; four students and a teacher. Now, there were only three left.

'_Bloody hell.'_Temon reacted, surprised.

'Where did she go?' Tented murmured in awe and fear.

'I-I don't know.' Lee answered, his voice being no different than hers.

'Heh.' Temon said, amused. 'That bloody little traitor decided to leave her team behind and save her skin.'

'I won't blame her.' Kana said. 'After all, she might've been right to do it.'

'_So, say again.' _Temon said, returning his focus on Guy, who still hadn't moved. 'What about that bag?'

'Guys, go.' Guy said. 'You know what I told you to do if we were to be in this situation.'

'Yes, but-' Tenten tried to protest.

'No. You know you must do. Follow my orders. It's for the best.'

'No, sensei!' Lee protested, ignoring Guy's attempts to stop him. 'We won't leave you behind, unlike Kaiya did!'

'_Lee!_' Tenten said, shocked by Lee's words. It was out of Lee's character to point at people like that and, even if it wasn't about herself, she felt offended. '_You can't just-'_

'You're in denial, Tenten, and you know it.'

Tenten remained quiet, being at loss of words.

'We won't leave you behind, Guy-sensei. We're a team and we look for eachoter!'

'I can't believe I say this,' Neji began, shaking his head from one side to the other. 'but I agree with Lee.'

Moments before her disappearance, she looked like she knew what she was doing, so Neji couldn't really tell of what was going on in Kaiya's mind. All he could do for now was agree with Lee, protect his team, and have faith that Kaiya didn't abandon them. For a second or two, he thought that his eyes catched a figure jumping between the trees several times, but it happened so fast, he assumed it was just a bird of some sort.

'Now ain't that sweet?' Kana's smirk grew to scary sizes. 'They want to protect each other. Now, if they insist, I guess they'll suffer by their own hands. Now, if I could only- _Temon, where's my bag?'_

'_How am I supposed to know where your stupid bag is?'_

'_I don't know. You know that-'_ Kana began, but couldn't finish her sentence.

Next thing Kana knew, she was on the ground.

'What the-' Kana looked up and saw an brown-haired girl with an leather jacket, braided hair and a burning gaze.

'_Kaiya.' _Lee's eyes widened in surprise.

'Please don't judge my actions and reasoning just because I wasn't born in Konoha, nor an respectable family. I can be as good as you, and everyone else. Just... let me prove myself.' Kaiya said, looking into Lee's eyes for a second, before turning her focus back to the threat.

Without anyone noticing, an smile appeared on Neji's face. He didn't know what others thought of Kaiya's words, but as for him, he felt like might be one of the only few who would truly understand her words, taking the circumstances he was born in. Kana tried to get on her feet, but was throwed a few metres back, her body hitting an Tree at full power. Kana tilted her head and was struck by an almost unbearable pain through her skull. She cursed under her breath before getting back to her feet.

'I see we have a brave one, eh?' Kana asked in her usual amused tone, ignoring the pain. 'Brave and pretty.'

Kaiya narrowed her eyebrows.

'_Pretty pathetic!' _Kana yelled, making Temon burst out laughing. 'I think you can handle those three while I deal with this brat, right, Temon?'

'Be sure of _that!_' Temon answered. 'Unlike you, I will actually get the chance to put my hands on-'

Temon wished to say more but instead, he got an foot on his head that pushed him to the ground. Neji watched as his victim remained still a few moments, before raising its head. Temon raised his head from the hole it made and began to aggressively spit earth.

'God dammit, these brats are annoying!' Temon whined, as he got to his feet.

Temon began making some hand signs and, just as Kaiya was about to see what happens, next thing she knew was an excruciating pain in her pain. She slowly turnedd her head back, and realised that the woman changed her position. She was now behind her, holding an odachi that was moving towards her at almost an illegal speed. If Kaiya would've not noticed it then, she would've been as good as sliced. She let her body drop to the ground as the katana cut the air around her.

When the sword returned to Kana, she placed it back into its holder.

'I see that you were able to protect yourself from my Dragon Cry.' Kana said with an light pout. 'Nearly got hit by it, but still.'

'Dragon-' Kaya began as she returned into her prepared-to-fight position, but lost her balance and had to take a few steps back in order to regain it, all due to an earthquake whose source was nearby. Kaiya turned around and saw the earth around Temon cracking and overlapping, creating movement around.

_'What the hell?'_ Tenten yelled in surprise as she tried to keep balance on the moving ground.

'You know what I told about element-affiliation the other day? Guy asked, doing better at keeping straight, comparing to his students. 'This man seems to be an earth-affiliated ninja.

'Even if I don't really do it, I'll explain it to you.'Temon said, his smirk growing.

'_Liar!'_ Kana's voice roared

'I am,' Temon continued, ignoring Kana, 'as this man just said, an earth-element user. It so happens that I'm one of the few pure remains of the Senju clan!'

**_A/N_**

**Heey, peeps! How's it going with y'all?**

**Here we are, at last, with another chapter! What did you guys think of the mission and the sudden appearance of Kana and Temon? What about Temon's revealing? **

**_You might've noticed Kana's sword, Dragon cry, right? Yep, explanation time. Kana owns an odachi, the largest ninja/samurai sword there is, having 90 centimetres (35 inches) in length. If you're curious, here's a picture of an odachi:_**

**Moving on, i have an challenge for you guys. Usually talking, I post about 1-2 chapters per week. ****_So_****, if you guys leave an vote, at least one comment on this chapter and you share this story with your friends, I'll do my best making the next chapter longer. See you in the next chapter! :)**


	5. The fight for approval

Guy's eyes opened wide as they filled with shock and disbelief.

'No...' he whispered.

'Oh, you can _believe it!' _Temon's eyes filled with pleasure from the gained reactions. 'Please don't be so shocked.'

'But- But it can't be!' Tenten said. 'The first Hokage had only one child; a daughter!'

'Oh, mind leaving my most _annoying _uncle aside?' Temon puffed disgusted. 'I am no child of his and I'm tired of being associated with his being.'

'But then...' Neji murmured, as he connected the dots in his head.

'You don't have to mind Temon, my dear.' Kana told Kaiya. '_I _am your opponent, not him. I'm sure your friends can do just fine with him.'

Kana grabbed her sword and prepared to attack. Instinctively, Kaiya put her hand in the small purse in which she always carried a few kunai. She searched through her purse and realised that she only had one Kunai left. _Shit! _She started regretting that she left her Tachi home. Even if it _did _hold a little weight, she decided that she should carry her sword in every mission.

'Last time you had an dumb luck, but _now, _you will truly face my Dragon cry!' Kana proud fully tugged onto her sword and aimed at Kaiya who struggled to keep her balance, while Temon started shaking the ground again. Kaiya pulled out the kunai and looked at it in disappointment. It was an kunai she had used for years, and the results of her training and battles were visible through the chirps and scratch marks on it. She held her kunai with an grip and did the craziest, yet most rational thing she could do at the moment: she tried to dodge the giant sword with her kunai.

'Kaiya!' Neji yelled.

The brown haired girl couldn't handle all the force with which the Dragon Cry hit her, and was pushed into a tree, hitting a tree mercilessly, fact that was proven moments later as a little blood dripped from her forehead.

'Kaiya! I'll go check on her-' Tenten took a few steps back, willing to go to Kaiya's in, but was stopped. A huge wall of dirt rose around them.

'Ntz, ntz, ntz. ' Temon shook his head in disapproval. 'You see, young lady, when you start something, you must also end it. The same goes for this fight. We won't stop until one of us -you most, likely- loose. Kana will take care of your little wild friend.'

'_Wild friend? _Excuse me, Kaiya is a human being.' Tenten protested, feeling offended by the blue-haired man's words.'

Temon sighed.

'That's why they shouldn't let women become ninja. They're always driven by their emotions. But Don't worry, young lady. The truth will eventually come out.'

'Truth?' Tenten repeated. 'What truth?'

'Don't worry about that, Tenten. We need to focus on how to get finish things quickly.' Guy said.

If he said that he wasn't curious about what truth Temon spoke about, he'd be a huge liar. He would've loved to find out more, but he couldn't let anything happen to his students. Whatever he meant when he talked about Kaiya didn't matter. Not for now, anyway. The four set themselves in an ready-to-attack position, looking at the man who just so relaxingly waited for their first move.

'We need to help Kaiya. She can't handle that woman all on her own!' Tenten whispered.

'If we want to help Kaiya, we need to beat this guy first.' Neji answered.

'Which... may take awhile.' Lee completed.

'If we want to help her, we need to hurry.' Guy said. 'Now, remember our training. Lee, remember what I told you about _that _technique.'

'I mustn't use it for anything but for protecting my loved ones.'

'Indeed. Now, if something happens and the fight takes an unexpected turn and i won't be able to protect you, I allow you to use it. Am I clear?'

'Yes, sensei.' Lee answered, feeling uneasy by the slight tremble in his sensei's voice.

'Prepare for the attack... _Now!_'

Kaiya slowly opened her eyes. For a second, she thought that her consciousness was still missing, but she soon realised that it wasn't so. She really _did _move. Weirdly enough, she didnt feel the ground under her legs. She slightly tilted her head around, and felt how her head appeared to be ten times heavier, along with an awful internal headache.

She unwillingly moaned, something that caused her to stop moving. She was pulled down by gravity and, as she hit the ground, more pain was send through her veins. She looked up with half open eyes the figure of the spiky-haired woman looking disgusted upon her.

Kaiya got herself up so she could be sitting in an cross-legged pose, and twitched as an pain shook through her spine. She searched her purse for her kunai, but it was gone.

'Oh, you must be looking for this.' Kana said indifferent, as she threw two pieces of metal towards Kaiya.

Kaiya catched the two pieces of metal and looked at them. If she was to connect the two, she would see her old kunai, now with an more obvious cut at its half.

'You're lucky that you had that kunai. If you would've not used it to protect yourself, be sure that by now, you would have been cut in two.' Kana informed in an now matter-of-fact voice.

Kaiya, who was still sitting on the ground, looked at her kunai.

'By the way, you're not good at hiding stuff. I found my backpack in no time at all.'

An shine could be seen in in Kaiya's eyes.

'I never meant to hide your stupid bag.' Kaiya said, raising to her feet.

Kaiya looked around and could see that huge earth wall somewhere not that far away appeared. She listened closely and could swear she was hearing screams coming from behind the earth wall. _That must be where they are_, Kaiya thought.

'Hey! Where are you going? Nobody turns their back on me!' Kana yelled, as Kaiya jumped on the tree branches nearby, closing the distance between her and where the Earth wall was.

'Don't be a coward. Come here and face me!' yelled as she arrived to her destination, sounding braver than she actually felt.

Kana appeared in front of Kaiya within seconds. As she looked down at the girl, one of her mouth's corners twitched.

'You don't really know what you're getting yourself into, do ya?' Kana murmured.

If Kaiya would've not learned to control her body so well, she would've been trembling under her opponent's gaze. If only her plan would work...

'What was that?' Lee asked, while panting down.

The fight didn't take place for more than two minutes, but it appeared that those 120 seconds were just enough for the man to bring out his strongest moves. Around them, the ground was all filled with cracks and gaps, due to his attempts in blocking them and the three man group and their sensei were already full of scratches and bruises. For a second, Lee thought he heard Kaiya yelling something about a cow and a face.

'What?' Tenten responded, without getting her eyes off the opponent.

'N-Nevermind.' Lee closed the subject, as he examined Temon.

Lee made another attempt at attacking Temon and tried to put him to the ground, but karma returned to him faster than he expected. Lee flew back and hit the Earth wall that was conjuring them.

'_What. An. Idiot._' Neji mumbled to himself as he prepared himself for the next attack. '_Byakugan_!'

Neji's eyes widened as the veins around pumped up to a thousand times their normal size as he activated his Kekkei Genkai. Due to the training he got when he was younger with his father, and later with his uncle and cousins, he got to almost perfect his Byakugan. He looked around him, checking on his teammates, then the opponent. At first, he thought he had something in his eye, and rubbed his eyes in attempt to clean his vision.

'What do you see, Neji?' Guy asked.

Kaiya was standing still while keeping her head down. Something stopped her from responding to Kana's insistent gaze that now rested on the back of her head.

'Be careful, child.' Kana warned. 'Playing cool will bring you nothing but eternal pain and an sure shameful death. If you act like this, you'll bring nothing but misery to your clan's name. Do you really want that?'

Kaiya's eyes widened in shock. She gritted her teeth and looked but.

'Who are _you _to lecture me?' Kaiya asked, her voice now holding an similarity with an roar. '_You, _who knows nothing of me or my past. _You,_ who has no pride and accepted to be send to intervene in others' business just for an pat on the back and a sack of money. Would you deny any of it?'

'Why would you so freely assume I was send by someone?' Kana narrowed her eyebrows. 'If you really want to know, I can assure you-'

'People like you, or anyone, to be fair, need someone to lead them through life. It came to me that people are dependent things that require constant attention and control. Even leaders need leaders. Thus, gods were created. They thought that the idea of an divine being with the supreme power among us would shut the defections out.'

'Defections?'

'The very few people who can take and control the harnesses of their own life and aren't afraid to fight for their freedom. The government is afraid of them.'

'_Enough._' Kana spat out in annoyance.

Kana took the Dragon Cry in her hand and aimed it at Kaiya. Kaiya, noticing Kana's action, jumped a few meters into the air, landing on the nearest tree branch. In the blink of an eye, the Dragon Cry changed direction, following Kaiya. The sword missed her by just a few centimeters, planting itself deep into the tree.

'_You-'_ Kana yelled annoyed as, with an powerful pull, she took the sword back, shaking the tree Kaiya was in.

Kana put her sword into the ground and, relying on it, she pushed herself up. She jumped just above the trees and attempted landing on Kaiya.

'You should've not done that. ' Kaiya murmured, as she jumped off the branch.

Kana thought she saw Kaiya grabbing something as she jumped but brushed it off, something that she soon had to regret. Kana landed on the branch and saw Kaiya next to her sword, smiling.

'Don't you even think of-' Kana called out, as Kaiya reached her hand out for the sword.

Kaiya, defying Kana's yells, curled her fingers around the sword. She attempted picking it up, but due to it's unexpected weight, she had to let the sword down seconds after, something that make Kana burst out laughing.

'Aw, you poor thing.' Kana laughed. 'I might have overestimated you. In order to use a sword, you must, first of all, train to hold it!'

Kaiya closed her eyes and breathed in. The grip she had on the sword tightened as Kaiya slowly opened her eyes. With an great effort, she pulled the sword up and pushed it to the tree in which Kana sat. It didn't take more than one hit for the tree to become unable to stand. Kaiya let the sword drop to the ground and, as the tree fell, she clenched one of her fists and pulled.

Kana's eyes widened. _Threads. _Before she could even do something. Meters and meters of threads pulled her to the tree trunk, conjuring her body, making it impossible for her to move.

'God damn you, Kobayashi! You will pay, I swear!' Kana yelled in anger, before hitting the ground with an loud _crash!_.

Kaiya stood there, shook by the woman's words. Who _was _she? How did she know? Kaiya advanced hesitantly to the fallen tree and saw how Kana's neck and legs were positioned in very uncomfortable positions. As she looked at the blonde woman, Kaiya felt a shiver running through her entire body. If she would've not heard an scream coming from behind the earth wall, Kaiya would have remained still for the rest of the day, sinking like a boat in her own ocean of thoughts.

Kaiya turned to the earth wall and looked at it. She wanted to put her hand on the wall, but her hand went through it, along with her entire body.

'Shit!' Kaiya cussed, as her body kissed the ground.

'Kaiya! Are you alright?' Tenten asked shocked and worried at the same time as she ran to her side.

'I guess you could say I've been better, but I'll do.' Kaiya answered quite truthfully, as she got to her feet.

She looked at the blue-haired man, who stared at Neji with pure interest and an controlled amount of shock I his eyes.

'An Byakugan? You must be a Hyuuga, am I right? I heard of you. You must be the only real treath there must be here. None of the others, including that wild beast you have there, should be an trearh Temon made a sign with his head towards Kaiya, who picked up his gaze with suspicion overflowing on her face.

'_I'm fine_.' Kaiya insisted, as she noticed Neji's eyes. 'What's that Byakugan of yours doing?'

'The Byakugan is an Kekkei Genkai from Neji's clan that-' Tenten started explaining.

'Get to the point.' Kaiya hurried her.

'His eyes allow him to see the chakra flow in someone's body. If I am right, there's an technique on this matter that allows Byakugan users to stop the chakra working in an body.'

'The eight trigrams, sixty-four palms.' Neji completed. 'Even though I only started recently on learning that technique, I could try give it a shot, but that would only be suicidal. Sensei, can you please try to attack him?

'Why?' Lee asked, as he rejoined his team.

'Don't worry, Lee.' Guy said. 'I'm sure Neji has an plan.'

'Neji this, Neji that, I swear to god-' Lee mumbled.

'_Lee._'

'Yes, sensei.'

Guy did as Neji asked and attempted kicking Temon, only for him to be pushed away by an ball of light. The three students watched as their sensei hit the wall and didn't have a single reaction after that.

'I think he passed out.' Kaiya suggested.

'Sensei!' Lee wanted to go to Guy in the hope of waking him up, but was stopped by Tenten.

'No, Lee. I'm sure Guy-sensei will resist until later.' Tenten said. 'Did you find anything, Neji?'

'I... didn't see any chakra in his body, until he used that ninjutsu against Guy-sensei.' Neji said. 'I don't understand.'

'Maybe he's something like me.' Lee suggested.

'You _do _have chakra in you, idiot. It's simply on a lower level than most people's. This guy... this guy looks like he throws all of his chakra away from his body and then summons it all at once when performing a ninjutsu.'

'But... that's physically impossible!' Tenten argued.

'Never say never. Who knows what kind of overpowered lunatics there are out there?' Kaiya said, quieting Tenten.

Temon let out an deep laugh.

'You know, you should listen to your wild friend more. She might be more than you think.' Temon smirked. 'Don't you agree, Kaiya?'

'How do you know my name?' Kaiya asked, not even trying to hide her suspicious assumptions.

'How could I not, having Kana as my partner? Speaking of Kana... It's not usual for her to let her prey escape.'

'She didn't do such thing. She lost.' Kaiya said, with an now calmer voice, ignoring her teammates' shocked reactions.

'There's no way an kid would-'

'You can go check it for yourself, if you want to.'

In an moment of anger, Temon made a some fast hand signs. As he finished, the ground started shaking as threads of wood raised from the ground, getting a tight grip on the four genin's legs and then bodies. While Neji, Lee and Tenten were moving agitated in attempt to escape, Kaiya just stared shocked at the wood that grew on her body.

'There's no need for you to move. The wood only responds to _my _commands.'

Kaiya raised her somber gaze in order to see Temon, now fully aware of her opponents. She looked at Temon, who appeared to be drained from most of his energy after his last move.

'_You._' Kaiya murmured.

'Finally realised, eh? I wonder why we always meet in such situations.'

_'How could you do that, you filthy animal?'_ Kaiya asked angered as she tried to escape the wooden prison. '_Where's your soul?'_

Neji, Tenten and Lee stopped forgot about their attempt of escaping and watched how Kaiya looked at Temon with an Wild gaze of anger.

'I would look in a mirror, before talking.' Temon responded, unbothered by Kaiya's verbal attacks.

'_Disgrâce! Dishonneur!' _Kaiya yelled, blinded by the fury boiling harder and harder inside her.

'What's happening with her?' Tenten asked her teammates, startled by Kaiya's reaction.

'Hmpf. Let's just say that... she had a little... _inconvenience_ in which I was involved.' Temon explained. 'Am I right?'

'_Je te chie dans le cou!' _Kaiya answered, as she attempted to spit him.

'Now, now. Please don't act like this. You don't want to prove my word and get your friends an opinion on what you really are, now do you?' Temon tilted his head to the left, as he gave Kaiya an questioning look.

Kaiya grunted as she stopped trying to escape, lowerig her head.

'Kaiya...' Neji began.

'_Never mind._' Kaiya responded, without giving Neji an look.

'Now, if we all calmed down, I think that we could finish our business smoothly.' Temon said, as he walked to an passed out Guy who still held the luggage close by in one of his hands.

'_No!'_ Tenten yelled.

'_Don't you dare touch Guy-sensei!' _Lee exclaimed, now fighting and biting the wood that held him from protecting his sensei.

'Please don't misunderstand.' Temon said. 'I have nothing against your sensei; I respect him for taking care of such _annoying _brats. The thing is, i need that luggage and as less proof as possible. The last thing I need is another report over me going through the Five Nations.'

'_Another report...?' _Neji wondered.

Temon stretched his arms in order to get the luggage, but the only thing he got was a strong foot in his face.

'What the f-' Temon stopped himself as he took a few steps back, rubbing his now bleeding nose.

'You shouldn't talk so almighty, Temon. You've always been weak on that one, don't you think?' Guy asked as he got up, with an smirk on his face. 'I thought you learned your lesson back then and now know not to underestimate the eternal youth!'

Temon's face was flooded with utter shock, something that allowed Guy to give him multiple hits.

'_You rock, Guy-sensei!_' Lee cheered, pleased with his sensei's move.

Guy smirked as he looked into the blue-haired man's eyes.

'I don't know what happened to you, I don't know what your goal is, but I can tell you this: whatever you do, _don't underestimate Konoha's shinobi._'

Guy attempted to give Temon another hit, but his attack was block as Temon grabbed one of his legs and pushed him up against the wall.

'Listen up, old man. I'll admit I didn't see through your little trick, but I _never _underestimate my opponent. Maybe you should do the same.'

Wood threads started to circle up around Guy, creating an small cage.

_Crack!_

'Hm?' Temon turned his head around.

_Crack! Crack!_

Temon raised his eyebrows. While three of the students were frozen in shock, one of them was shaking, her head down. Kaiya's hands formed tight fists and her muscles tensed. With each movement, the restraining wood around her showed apparitions of cracks, one by one, each deeper than the one before, damaging the wood slowly but safely.

'I've seen you before. I've seen your moves, your tactics... _You can't get away now.' _Kaiya said as, with an final move, the wood around her fell to the ground, divided in an thousand pieces.

Kaiya looked at Temon, whose smile began to tremble. A few deep growls could be heard coming from the girl's direction. What her teammates didn't see was that her eyes changed to an golden-ish colour.

'_No.' _Temon murmured, acknowledging what would happen when he saw someone's eyes turning golden. 'Please.'

It was too late. Kaiya's back arched as she ran to him, making almost inhumane sounds. Even though he tried, Temon couldn't fully protect himself from Kaiya's hit and was pushed to the ground. Kaiya crouched over him as she prepared to give him the final attack through an hit that would decapitate Temon.

'_Please! _This is exactly what happened to Jun. Do you really want it to repeat to someone else?' Temon asked in horror, as he closed his eyes and crouched in defends.

Kaiya's hand stopped just as it was about to hit Temon's head. She stared at Temon a few moments, before getting up and taking a few steps back.

'Don't try to attack us again, or I'll have no hesitation. _Am I clear?'_ Kaiya growled.

The cage that held Guy captive, as well as the wood around Neji, Tenten and Lee crumbled, leaving them all to fall to the ground. Lee sighed in relief, although he was as tense as before.

'We should thank god.' Tenten said. 'Don't you think, Neji?'

'Actually, I think we should thank Kaiya.' Neji said, as he got on his feet. 'In the end, it was her who defeated this guy and freed us.'

Tenten watched how Kaiya walked away from Temon and checked on Guy's pulse. The ,she walked to somewhere next to him and grabbed the luggage, as the wall slowly crumbled to the ground.

'Hey, can one of you get him? My hands are already full.' Kaiya asked, as she pointed to Guy.

'Uh, don't worry, I'll get it, Kaiya-san.' Lee said, as he hurried to get his sensei.

'Did he just...' Tenten looked at Neji.

'Yep. He's just shocked and, knowing him, embarrassed. Can't say I'm not.' Neji answered, looking how Lee took Guy and offered to carry the luggage as well, something that was refused.

Minutes later, the earth wall was fully crumbled, allowing the wounded group to advance.

'What's with that tree?' Tenten pointed at an the fallen tree nearby, where the buzz of flies could be heard.

'Oh. I wouldn't go there if I were you.' Kaiya mumbled.

'Why?'

'The sun will set soon. I think that we should stop soon for the night.' Kaiya changed the subject, as she looked away.

'I don't see why we should do that. We're still in a good shape and we would only waste some useful hours of advancing, don't you think?' Neji protested.

'First of all,' Kaiya looked into Neji's eyes in a deadly manner. 'our sensei fainted. Carrying him only slows us down. Second of all, just because you want to act tough, it doesn't mean that the others do, too. Third and last of all, I'm tired. If we weren't to stop, would you be able to carry me, as well?'

Neji didn't bring aything in his defense, but prefered to mumble something under his breath

'Anyway, can we go a little further? I'm uncomfortable knowing that that weird dude isn't that far away from us.' Tenten suggested.

'Whatever.' Kaiya shrugged.

'Hey, can I ask you something?' Tenten asked Kaiya.

'I guess you can.' Kaiya answered in a tired manner.

'Speaking of that man, he mentioned something about an... incident?'

'Maybe.' Kaiya growled, looking away.

'He also mentioned about someone named... Jun and you seemed to know somebody with that name.'

'I do.' Kaiya now answered at such ease, that it surprised Tenten. She expected Kaiya to brush it off.

'May I ask, who _is _he?'

'Some weakling, for su-' Neji began, but couldn't proceed any further.

Neji didn't get to finish his sentence, as an punch was planted in his face. He lost balance and fell to the ground, bringing his sensei and teammate down as well. Next thing he knew, he was on the ground with a bloody nose.

_'Don't.' _Kaiya growled warningly, before walking away.

'_What? Where? Where is he?' _Guy began to mumble.

'_Guy-sensei!'_ Lee exclaimed as he forgot for a second about what just happened, turning his attention on his sensei.

'What happened?' Guy asked as he massaged his forehead. 'The last thing I remember was that I tried to-'

'You lost consciousness due to the power with which you hit the wall.' Tenten informed. 'You were out the rest of the fight.'

'Oh? Then you guys fought that man on your own?' Guy asked, amazed.

'About that...' Tente began.

'Of course we did, sensei!' Lee said has he began to gesture energicaly, something that obviously confused the poor man's mind.

'_Lee!' _Tenten scoffed. 'I'm sorry about that, sensei. We did our best, but the man seemed to be able to control wood, and he blocked us from moving through moulding some wood around us. Kaiya was able, somehow, to destroy that thing and eventually beat him.'

'Did you... _kill him?_' Guy narrowed his eyebrows.

'No.' Kaiya answered. 'But are we going to leave soon? The sun is already setting and we still haven't found an place where we can camp overnight.'

'O-Of course.' Guy answered while jumping to his feet, as he realised that he was still on the ground. 'Let's go!'

**_A/N_**

_**Wooo! Here we are, with chapter five from 'The Possesions of the Wild'. You might have noticed that I changed the cover of the book. What do you think? Should I keep the new one, or change it to the old one? Any of you new here, here's the old cover:**_

Moving on, yep, this chapter IS, in fact, longer, the chapter itself having aprox. 4200 words, thus with about 1,000 word longer. Yay!

_**What do you guys think of this chapter? Should've Kaiya killed Temon? Who do you think that Jun is? What do you think of Kaiya's eyes that changed?**_

**_Oh, yeah! You noticed that part when Kaiya spoke in another language? It was French. At first, she just said 'disgrace! Dishonour!', but after that she insulted him, telling him that she'll pee down his neck. Fabulous, don't you think(irony stinks here worse than a skunk)_****? Anyone wondering, no I'm not French, nor do I speak the language fluently. I looked up some insults in French and chose the best one from the list. ?**

**_Well, that was it for now, see you in the next chapter! _**

**\- Avery 3**


	6. The thoughts before the fire

***rewritten***

**Song: watch?v=bP1tl07G36A&feature= **

It didn't take long for the small group to settle down for the night. It was already dark and they had made a small fire to warm up.

Kaiya sat herself next to Tenten, but closer to the fire. She noticed how Neji would shoot her a look from the corner of his eyes, and she would normally respond to it in a way or another, but she felt herself too tired to do so.

'Are you guys hungry?' Tenten asked, mostly rethoricaly.

There were some mutters of 'yes', but nobody really said anything.

'Why don't you just hunt something?' Kaiya said, as it was the most obvious thing.

'_Hunt? _Hunt what?' Neji asked as he wrinkled his nose in confusion.

'I-I don't know. We're five people here, so a deer or something like that would be good.'

Nobody tried to hide the looks they gave their teammate.

'I can assure you that there's no need to do that.' Guy said with a dry laugh. 'If we hurry and use our youthful power, we should reach Sunagakure by tommorrow evening. I'm sure everyone can resist until then, correct?'

'_Beside_s, we're ninja.' Lee said. 'We don't take animals down!'

'Wait,' Kaiya narrowed her eyebrows, 'so you mean to say that none of you ever hunted?'

The group nodded awkwardly.

'I took down my first deer when i was seven!' She exclaimed.

'What kind of family did you grow in?' Tenten asked, shocked.

'Oh, you don't want to know!' Kaiya said in a half-amused manner. 'All you need to know is that i spend most of my life hunting.'

Kaiya looked down, pursing her lips as another wave of confusion was thrown at her. She should've _not_ said that, right?

'Now that i think of it, you never talk about your family. What clan you come from?'

Kaiya felt her breath taken away. She made eye-contact with everyone around her and noticed how everyone waited for her answer. A few silent moments pass, until she let out a sigh. They were her team, and she felt like they deserved an explanation.

'I can't tell you.' She said, lowering her head.

'W-what?' Guy asked. 'That's the silliest-'

'Look,' Kaiya cut him off. 'I know you want and deserve an explanation, but it's very hard to explain right now. If, however? the time is right and i'll still be around, then i'll tell you everything. _I_ _promise.'_

The air became still and nothing but the fire wood made a single sound. Kaiya felt the need to say something, but didn't know what. She never found herself in this situation before, and honestly felt bad for them.

'Alright!' Lee exclaimed joyful, making everyone jump. 'I believe in you!'

'Where are you going?' Neji asked.

'Hunting.' Kaiya now answered in upbeat tone as she forced a smile. 'I hope you guys still are hungry.'

'I'll lend you hand, Kaiya-san.' Lee sprinted up.

'Me too.' Tenten said, quieter.

'You- You guys don't need to do that, y'know?' Kaiya laughed as she scratched the back of her neck.

'You must be tired after all that happened today. We all are. After all, we are a team, so we help eachoter.' Lee said.

'Well said, Lee!' Guy spoke with pure joy. 'That was an most youthful argument!'

'Thank you, Guy-sensei!' Lee thanked. 'Let's go!'

Neji looked away with a disgusted face.

'Shouldn't we go with them, sensei?' Neji shot a look to his sensei. 'They might as well get killed, knowing them.'

'They'll be fine.' Guy said, leaning back on a tree. 'They're capable genin.'

'This was a _really _good idea, Kaiya.' Tenten said as she took a bite from a piece of meat.

The small group sat around the fire, each of them eating big pieces of grilled deer meat. It was true that the fact that the dead animal layed in front of them and it looked like it was creepily staring at them in deep disappointment, but they couldn't care less; they just wanted their fair share of dinner.

'You're really good hunter, Kaiya-san.' Lee stated.

'Thanks!' Kaiya said with a smile.

'Thank you for the dinner, Kaiya.' Tenten said as she finished her dinner, rubbing her eyes. 'I wish i could stay up more, but i'm really tired. I think i'll go to sleep.'

'That's a good idea, Tenten.' Guy said. 'I think we all should go to sleep now, if we want to be fresh tommorrow.'

Everyone seemed to agree.

'Well, i'll stay for another minute or two to pack the rest of the meat.' Kaiya said, as she put her hand in her small bag searching for something, before biting her lip. 'Right.'

'What's wrong?' Guy asked.

'Could anybody borrow me a kunai? Mine broke today.'

'Who comes with only _one _kunai at them?' Neji puffed.

'Who comes with such an attitude?' Kaiya snapped, looking straight into his eyes.

Neji narrowed his eyebrows as he gave her an disgusted, yet surprised look, but said nothing.

'You can have my kunai, Kaiya-san.' Lee said, handing the girl an kunai. 'Here.'

Kaiya gave him a small smile. 'Thank you.'

Tenten didn't really mind watching what Kaiya was about to do next, but turned around and walked to her sleeping bag, followed closely by her sensei and teammate. For a second, Neji stopped to look at Kaiya, who was observed with great interest by Lee.

'Come on, Neji.' Tenten called.

Neji shook his head, before walking away. _She was a weird girl._

Kaiya sighed, as she put herself on her knees, beggining to cut the remaining meat off the deer.

'Won't anybody find the deer remainings suspicious?' Lee asked.

Kaiya turned around and looked at Lee.

'Probably, but we'll be gone by then.' She answered simply.

Lee got closer to where Kaiya was sitting, and sat himself cross-legged next to her.

'So, for how long have you been gone?' He asked quietly.

For a second, the kunai slipped her hand and ran over the other hand, holding the deer, letting the sharp edge go through the thumb. Kaiya let immediately the deer down and put her thumb in her mouth for a second cleaning it from blood and dirt, before covering it with her blouse.

'How'd you figure?' She said in the same manner as he did.

She looked at him with a spark of curiosity.

'It's not hard.' He said, laying back a little. 'Not many people just appear out of nowhere, claiming they have no last name.'

Kaiya couldn't help but snort.

'Well, you _do _have a point there.' She said.

'So?' Lee asked hopeful.

'So what?' Kaiya narrowed her eyebrows.

'What happened?'

Kaiya turned her head to him, giving him a solemn look.

'_Many _things happened.' She said quietly. 'But the thing that hurt me the most happened two years ago. I fled immediatly after.'

'Your parents?' Lee tried to guess.

Kaiya shook her head.

'No, but if you need to understand it, you must hear what happened before, and it's rather complicated and time consuming.'

'I have time.' Lee tilted his head to an side.

'So, do I, but it's complex. I don't expect you to understand it, and if you don't understand, it's useless.' Kaiya explained simply.

Lee's muscles relaxed, allowing his face not to be so stiff.

'Alright.' He said.

Kaiya's eyes widened. She looked at him.

'I just hope that one day i will.' Lee gave Kaiya an big smile that showed off his white teeth.

If the fire wasn't there to help, Lee would've noticed Kaiya's face heating up.

'By the way,' he added, 'thanks for standing up to Neji. I ussualy do that as well, but he doesn't seem to react at me the same way as with you.'

Kaiya looked back at the fire, trying to bring her face back to normal.

'It's probably because i'm still new.' She said. 'We'll probably get more accustomed with eachother soon, and he'll have the same reaction with me.'

She stood still for a minute, before taking her wounded finger out and looked at it for a second; luckily, the cut wasn't very deep, so the bleeding nearly stopped. She sighed and returned back to her earlier occupation.

Nobody said nothing except for Guy, who who snorted as loud as his lungs let him.

It didn't take long for Kaiya to finish. Just about ten minutes later, she already had three medium-sized pieces of meat over one another, which she put in an small backpack she had. She stood up and brushed off her legs.

'I don't know about you, but i'll go to sleep as well. Will you take care of the fire?' She asked Lee.

'Um, yeah. Don't worry.'

'Alright. Goodnight.'

Kaiya forced an small smile, before setting herself comfortable near her team. Seeing all that happened that day, it was no surprise that Kaiya fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.


	7. 7A hospital and a visit

'Good afternoon, Guy-san. How did the mission go?' One of the entrance guards asked, as an group of four teenagers and an adult entered the village.

'It went great, thanks Koutetsu.' Guy answered, with one of his big smiles.

After the incident with Kana and Temon, the mission went quite smoothly. Ignoring his wounds, Lee continued to provoke Neji into his youthful battles, something to which Neji mainly responded with the same coldness as ever.

While Tenten tried to cheer her up, Kaiya preferred to keep her thoughts more to herself, unless necessary to do otherwise, something which Tenten picked up quickly. She didn't mind it though; if she wouldn't like it, Kaiya would just shut her up, right?

'Alright.' Guy turned to his students. 'We have to do an report on this mission and normally, we would have to do this together, but how 'bout this: I go to do that report to the Hokage while you guys go to the hospital to do some checks and later, this evening, I treat you all with some ramen for your most _youthful _work?'

Generally talking, it was a good sign if Guy added the word _youthful_ in order to describe something.

'Amazing! Thank you, Guy-sensei!' Lee exclaimed as he raised a fist in the air, nearly punching Neji.

'Watch out, idiot.' Neji mumbled.

'Yeah, um, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't think I'll be able to make it. I've got some business to solve.' Kaiya awkwardly excused herself.

It wasn't as she was lying; she _did _have to meet her landlady and pay her rent, but it didn't happen _that _day, and it wasn't anything very urgent. In truth, it wasn't that she was busy, it was just that the mission drained her whole body from both energy and motivation and she preferred to use the little energy she still had to get home.

'Oh? Are you sure you can't solve that problem some other time? I mean, Guy-sensei doesn't get to treat us that often. This would be some important team-building...' Lee said.

Kaiya sighed. Putting it that way, maybe it wouldn't break spending some more time with them. Maybe, she could convince them that they could trust her. _After all, _she thought, _its just one evening. It can't kill me._

'I'll see what I can do.' She eventually gave up.

An smile appeared on Lee's face.

'Great!' He smiled. 'Then... I'll see you later, then?'

'Wait, you're not coming to the hospital?' Kaiya asked.

'Hm... no. I just need to train. You see these?' He pointed to some scars on his forehead. 'Next time, they won't be there.'

Kaiya couldn't help but smile.

'Well, good luck with that.' She answered, before waving at him and navigating Konoha's streets alongside Tenten and Neji.

'This doesn't look good.' An young woman in white, hospital clothing said as she looked at an scar that was placed next to Kaiya's right eye. 'If we got to it earlier, we might've treated it just fine, but now, it might affect your eyesight.'

'Affect my eyesight?' Kaiya repeated.

'Maybe. But don't worry, I've been working in this hospital for six years, and I'll fix it.'

The woman walked over to an table nearby, took an bottle with sanitary alcohol and put some on an eye pad.

'Um, I think I can disinfect this scar at home as well, miss.' said Kaiya in a blunt manner.

'If you came here, then don't kill any more of my time and let me do my job.' The woman snapped, as she put the eye pad on Kaiya's forehead, making her flinch in pain for a second. '_Stand still. _Believe me, I could be using this time with you for someone more worth of it, but who am I to refuse patients? Maybe I'll get an promotion, even...'

Kaiya gritted her teeth and waited for the nurse to finish adding some bandages around her head.

'Now, if I remember correctly, you also had an scar under your stomach.' The nurse stated, as Kaiya nodded. 'Let's take a look at it.'

Kaiya did as she was asked and let the nurse have an closer look at at an rather ugly scar under the right side of her belly. It didn't take more than a few moments of analysis for the nurse's expression to soften. The nurse sighed.

'Where did you get this from?' The nurse asked, keeping her eyes on the scar while touching the skin around.

'At the entrance of the Sand Village.' Kaiya answered truthfully. 'I might've entered too fast without introducing myself and my intentions, and the guards thought I was an treath. I guess you can imagine what happened next.'

'Indeed. They're nasty, those Sand Villagers, aren't they?'

'I would rather use the word repulsive. Wouldn't blame them, though. From what I heard, they've got a lot of trash on themselves on the past few years.'

'I guess you're right. My brother lives there, actually.'

'Oh?'

'Well, never mind that.' The woman changed the subject. 'I'm afraid that you'll have to stay here for awhile.'

'Why?' Kaiya narrowed her eyebrows. 'I can handle these scars while on a mission. Believe me, I had worse than this.'

The nurse looked at Kaiya in confusion, her eyebrows raised. If She was right to assume, the girl was part of one of those fresh genin teams who started just a few months ago. The Hokage wouldn't put them at any great risks, so what could've this girl experience so bad? She might ask her boss later about It.

'I'm sorry, but as long as I'm not hundred percent sure that you're healed, I'm not allowed to let you leave.'

The woman analysed the long scar from Kaiya's body for a few more moments before turning away to take a few more bandages and eyepads stuffed with sanitary alcohol.

'I had plans today.' Kaiya mumbled.

'So did I, darling, but sometimes, we've got to sacrifice our little wishes for the greater good.'

'Lord Hokage.' The woman bowed.

'Good afternoon, Asumi-san. 'The Hokage greeted with his usual smile the masked kuniochi. 'I see that your mission went well.'

Asumi hesitated. While she didn't have to look for the stranger child, she went on an short infiltration mission, and returned just that morning. She gave her report that morning and, in her opinion, her aptitudes in that mission were just fine.

Could it be that the Hokage thinked otherwise? Did he call her to return her mask and leave the ANBU for good? As an fresh ANBU, she felt how she was always on thin ice, needing to comsantly prove herself. If she had to leave, She would be just _so _ashamed if she would! Not only that, but her parents would give her an huge _I told you! _but would begin to compare her to her little sister, who already worked in a cosy office from their flower shop.

'It's about the girl, Kaiya.' The Hokage explained, making Asumi internally sigh in relief. 'She just returned from her first missions a few hours ago and it appears that there was an little... _inciden_t. I think Neji, Lee and Tenten here can explain you in a more detailed manner than me.'

It was then that, as she moved her gazed around the Hokage desk that Asumi noticed the presence of three teenagers, an boy with long, dark hair and white eyes, another boy with short dark hair, and a girl with her hair done in two buns, each having their arms, legs or head bandaged.

'An Hyuuga?' Asumi murmured, looking at the boy's white eyes.

'Indeed.' The boy responded coldly. 'Any objections?'

'Not at all.' Asumi blinked behind her mask, surprised by the boy's bravery. 'So, tell me, what's this _incident?' _

The three genin did their best in explaining what they saw a few days before, sometimes contradicting on details, but agreeing on the main story.

'...and then he mentioned something about somebody named Jun,' Tenten finished the story.'but when I asked Kaiya about it, she admitted knowing someone with that name, but Neji decided to act as an _complete_ _imbecile _and Kaiya refused to say anything else from there off. Literally.'

Neji shifted on his legs, clearly stopping himself from saying something.

'I see.' Asumi nodded. Is there anything else I need to know, Lord Hokage?'

'Does she need to know anything else, kids?' The Hokage turned to the three genin, who shook their heads. 'If so, then you three are free to go.'

Asumi watched as the small group bid a goodbye to the Hokage, before quickly turning and exiting the room.

'So, Asumi,' The Hokage said. 'for now, all I'm asking you to do is, just like before, to try and get close to her. Try to find the reasoning behind her actions.'

'I understand.' Asumi nodded. 'I should be going now.'

'Indeed. If you're going to look for her, you should be going to the hospital tomorrow. Kaiya should be in there for a few days. The report I got claims she got some serious injuries around her lower-stomach, and that she has to get some sort of surgery.'

'Oh?'

'That's all the information I have for now, Asumi. You're off.'

Kaiya blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the dim light. Although She felt like She just woke up from a deep sleep, she was horribly tired. She tried to move her head to the right, trying to see her surroundings, but her head, that now felt ten times heavier, just rolled along. Looking around she noticed she was... in an hospital room. She groaned as she put an hand on her face, trying to figure out what happened.

Last thing she knew, she was in the hospital and the nurse told her how she had to remain in the hospital for a few days, and...

'Good evening, Kaiya-san.' An feminine voice said.

Kaiya looked at the door and saw how an young woman stood before it.

'Good...evening?' Kaiya answered, confused.

'Oh no, I think it's better if you would lay down for now.' The nurse said urgently, as Kaiya tried to stand up.

Kaiya groaned in pain, as she was shot by pain in her lower stomach. Even though it didn't last for more than two seconds, the pain was intense enough to make hersel drop back on her back.

'What happened?' Kaiya asked.

'Short... memory... loss.' The woman wrote down on her notepad, before turning her gazed back to Kaiya, with the sweetest smile. 'Don't worry if you can't immediately remember. It happens to the most people. Miss Asuka analysed your wound under your stomach and, along with other very experienced colleagues, decided that you needed an surgery.'

'_An surgery?' _Kaiya repeated in utter shock and disbelief.

'Yes,'The woman tried to calm her down,'but don't worry, everything went successfully-'

_'Did they take blood tests?'_

'Y-yes, I believe so.'

_'What about DNA's?'_

Kaiya felt her heart's beats accelerating by the second. _This can't be happening_, she thought, _not yet._

'You'll have to ask-' The door intrerupted the blonde nurse, as it opened with an quiet _creak!_, letting an brown-haired woman in official doctor clothes.

'_Asuka-sam_a!' The blonde nurse exclaimed, not sure if she should feel relieved or surprised. 'Are the results out already?'

'Did you expect otherwise, Kenta?' Asuka raised her eyebrows.

Kenta stood there frozen, as she looked at her superior. Kaiya looked at the brown-haired woman with squinted eyes. The woman, Asuka, was the same nurse that checked on her, wasn't she?

'N-no, ma'am.' Kenta shook her head urgently, before exiting the room.

Asuka turned to Kaiya, who was shamelessly glaring at her.

'Good evening to you too, Kaiya.' The woman greeted in the same don't-mess-with-me tone in her voice as always. Nobody could blame her, though. Most kids that go in the hospital _were _messy.

Kaiya looked at Asuka wide-eyed. There was no disgust, shock or fear in her voice or face. Maybe she should keep quiet and act dumb. This way, people might not suspect anything.

'How do you...?'

'Know your name?' Asuka laughed. 'Your teammates. They dropped out just a few hours ago. You know, you should make an ID card soon. It'll be easier for both you and other people.'

'Wait, what time is it?' Kaiya asked urgently.

'It's...' Asuka looked at an clock placed on one of the white walls. 'nine p.m..'

'_Nine?_' Kaiya gasped.

'Yeah. Time flies fast, ain't it? Well, moving on!'

'Miss, you can let me go. I can assure you that-' Kaiya attempted sitting up, but gave up on it soon enough, as an thundering pain shrivelled through her lower-stomach, yet again.

'Assure me that you'll have to be stuck here for recovery.' Asuka completed. 'Please bear with me and cope. _Moving o_n, one of our assistants, Kenta, might've mentioned something about an surgery, right?

Kaiya nodded.

'Well, to clear things up for you, after an closer analysis at the scar under your stomach, I noticed how that scar was deep enough to touch your appendix, and got it infected. I asked for the opinions of my colleagues, and we all agreed that, in order to have an perfect health, you needed an surgery.'

'Was it absolutely necessary?' Kaiya asked, her face wrinkling.

'Well, we don't drug people and open their bodies and work on their insides for fun, ya know? Besides, I'm sure that if anybody would've tried that, the Hokage would've dealt with them personally.'

'Fair enough.' Kaiya shrugged as she nodded. 'Well, did any... accidents happen with my body?'

'Everything went successful, although you _will _have to remain here for a while in order to recover.'

'How long will I have to stay?'

'Depends on your body.' Asuka shrugged.'It may take a week, or a month... Who knows?'

Kaiya puffed as she crossed her arms. She understood the necessity of her recovery, but she didn't enjoy the fact that she not only can stay on her word and was most likely late for that dinner with her team, but she'll also slow them down waiting for her, and later in the mission after she gets out of the hospital, because everyone knows that even if you're out of the hospital, you'll still need a little time to put yourself back on the line.

_Knock knock!_

'Who is it?' Asuka yelled.

'I-It's me, Asuka-sama.' The quiet voice of Kenta could be heard from behind the door.

'What is it?' Asuka continued to yell.

'Kaiya has an... visitor.' Came the answer, making Kaiya almost see Kenta fidgeting her fingers.

Kaiya's eyebrows got so close to eachother that they could almost form an long, furry line. _Visitor? _Who in the name of god would visit her? _Especially_ at that ungodly hour!

'It's nine! The visiting hours ended two hours ago.

'Actually... they end at ten.' Kenta squeaked.

'That's only on weekends!'

'But, Asuka-sama, today's the sixteenth of October, it's Saturday.'

Asuka shot an look to the desk calender laying on the nightstand next to Kaiya's bed. It was, indeed, an Saturday. Asuka sighed.

'Fine, then. Let him in.'

The door opened with an _crea_k, making space for an boy in an green latex jumpsuit and an bowl haircut. Kaiya felt how the wish of disappearing through thin air grew inside of her.

'Hey, weren't you here earlier today?' Asuka asked.

'Yeah, I'm in the same team as Kaiya.'

'I see. Well, I'll leave you two to it.' Asuka said looking at Lee, as she walked to the door. 'Don't forget, the visiting hours end in an hour.'

The two genin watched how Asuka exited the room and said something to Kenta as she closed the door. Lee turned his head to Kaiya, who moved her gaze somewhere else. A few moments pass in total silence.

'Hey.' Lee greeted, still unsure how to handle the awkward situation.

'Hey.' Kaiya answered simply. She didn't expect anyone to ever visit her. _Especially _when she was in such an pathetic position.

'M-May I sit down?' Lee asked, pointing at Kaiya's bed.

Kaiya shot an look to where Lee pointed.

'Hn.' Kaiya said, pulling her legs closer to her, giving Lee an rather generous place to sit.

Lee nodded shortly, as he sat himself down.

'So, I heard you got to stay in here for awhile?'

'Yeah.' Kaiya's cheek twitched. 'Pathetic, isn't it?'

'What?' Lee furrowed his eyebrows, that now looked like a long, hairu caterpillar. 'It's not pathetic.'

'Not for _now, _but think about it: I'll slow you guys down in the next mission. You three will have to wait for me like I'm some sort of granny.'

'I'm sure we won't. I mean,' Lee added quickly, after Kaiya shot him an questioning look,'one time something similar happened to me as well, and I had to sit in the hospital for _an full month.'_

'No way.' Kaiya said with an drop of amusement in her voice.

'Oh, you should've seen Guy-sensei!' Lee continued, feeling encouraged by Kaiya's reaction. 'He didn't let it show, but he was distressing over the fact that he slowly ran out of money.'

Kaiya snorted and even looked amused for a second, but her face turned ice-hard and serious.

'Did something happen, Kaiya-san?' Lee asked, confused by Kaiya's sudden change of attitude.

'Why did you come all the way here at this late hour? Aren't your parents worried?'

'They won't.' Lee said, doing his best in smiling. 'They won't worry for someone they don't know.'

The colour faded from Kaiya's cheeks. _That did not just happen. _If she didn't look at him before out of stubbborness, now she couldn't do that because of shame. She remained quiet, trying to figure out what to say, without sounding pitiful or harsh.

'It's ok, I Don't dwell much on it.' Lee brushed it off, before looking down. 'I came here because, well... I brought you something.'

For a second, she forgot about her stubbornness and looked at Lee. He searched through an plastic bag for a second, until he scooped out an kunai and handed it to Kaiya.

Kaiya took it in her hand and analised it. It was as sharp as it could be, shiny and without a single scratch. She looked at Lee, not sure how to thank him. The two locked eye contact for a couple second.

'Is it the right one?' Lee asked anoxious. 'I didn't know which brand you preferred, so I-'

'No,' Kaiya said. 'it's perfect.'

Lee sighed in relief as Kaiya felt something she didn't feel in a long time. She didn't feel anxious or angry around her anymore, and felt something she would've nearly sold her soul for. She felt happy.

'I also brought you dinner.' Lee said more confidently. 'I thought you might be hungry.'

If there was a thing that always captured Kaiya's attention, it was food. Her eyes followed intensely Lee, who was picking up two small, red carton boxes on which was written something from a plastic bag.

'Thanks.' Kaiya said as Lee handed her one of the boxes, along with an pair of chopsticks.

They separated each the two chopsticks, opened the boxes and it wasn't until the smell of noodles hit her that Kaiya realised how hungry she actually was.

'This is amazing.' She preached, with her mouth full of noodles.

'So... you had to do an surgery?' Lee asked, as they were eating.

'Yeah. Turned out I had some sort of-' Kaiya stopped.'We're eating. I don't want to kill your appetite.'

'Don't worry, Kaiya-san! I'm resistant.' Lee laughed.

'Good.' Kaiya puffed in amusement. 'Well, It turns out that I had some sort of infection under my stomach and Asuka, along with other-'

'Who's Asuka?' Lee narrowed his eyebrows, which now looked like a long, furry caterpillar.

'The lady with brown hair you saw earlier.'

'Ah. Sorry, go on.'

'So, Asuka and other doctors decided that it was for the best if I got an surgery to take my appendix out, and here I am.'

'I see.' He said.

After a few minutes of thoughts and ramen, Lee decided that even though he didn't really liked doing it, he should take all his bravery and prideness he got and say it.

'So, um, while we were on the mission...' he began, unable to keep his gaze on Kaiya more than a second.

'Hm?' Kaiya answered, just as excited for the subject as Lee was.

Lee took a big breath in.

'Sorry for butting in on your life. I don't know what was in my head.'

Before Kaiya got to say anything, Lee got up.

'It's getting late. I should go.' He said, as he walked to the door.

He put his hand on the doorknob and, before he would leave, he turned at Kaiya one last time.

'See you tomorrow.' He said in a breath. 'Good night.'

And he fleed.

_**A/N**_

**_Aaaye, what's up, everyone_**_**? First of all, Sorry that this chapter**_**_ took longer to come out, but _**_**I kinda got lazy with it. **_

**_Second_**_** of all, what. Do y'all. Think? I know, i know, this chapter **_**_didn't_** _**have as much action as the previous ones did, but it was a **_**_necessary thing _**_**for**_**_ the story plot(you'll see later why). What do you think of Lee's gesture? _**_**What**_ **about his apology? Tell me more in the comments! See you in the next chapter!**

**_~Avery _**


	8. 8 Akari's appearance

'Lord Hokage!' An woman said, as she rushed into the Hokage office.

The woman wore nurse clothes and, for a moment, she tried to trim her brown hair while catching her breath.

'Hey, Hey, _hey!_' An guard entered panting, following the nurse. 'At least knock, now will ya?'

The woman came running from the hospital as soon as her boss let her do so that morning. Of course she wouldn't let some guard stop her from reporting to the Hokage the results she received with just a couple of hours ago. The Hokage made an sign to the guard, who exited the room, not forgetting to close the door behind him.

'What's the rush, Asuka?' The Hokage asked.

'As you may already know, an girl named Kaiya is at the hospital in recovery after an surgery she had yesterday afternoon.' The woman spoke at fire-fast speed.

'Yes... I heard.'

'We took some blood and DNA tests while she was out in order to see how exactly should we proceed with her body, and you might want to see what we got.'

The Hokage's eyebrows each formed an perfect curve. He had his doubts on it, but the girl wasn't very different in any way. Her appearance was seemingly ordinary, she didn't act too repulsive or much-to-herself and, from what he heard from her team, she did her best and protected her team on the last mission.

If she had, by any chance, an ugly past that gave her doubts on her loyalties, she might've not hesitated and wouldn't risk her life. She either truly wants to be a shinobi of Konoha, or she is a really good actress. He wondered which one it could be.

Asuka walked closer to his desk and layed an notepad full of writing in front of him.

'We saw that she has an O-type blood. It isn't that uncommon, but it _would_ get complicated if she would be in need of blood.' She explained, pointing to different notes on the page. 'Leaving that Aside, it's her DNA that's funny.'

'How so?'

'You know how we can, with a little work, identify someone's family tree through their DNA. Well, while the origins of 49% of her DNA are still unknown, we could still pair 51% percent of it with an clan, well, _somebody _actually, from here.'

'Did you Really?' The Hokage asked, truly surprised.

Asuka nodded.

'Who, then?'

Asuka pointed an name standing at the end of the page. The Hokage's eyes widened. From all the families possible, he couldn't bring himself understand how it happened to be this one. He had to delay finishing some paperwork and the meeting with Danzo and the other elders in order to check on something.

'Alright, then. You should return to the hospital now, I'm sure people wait for your assistance.'

Asuka nodded and picked her notepad, before bidding an goodbye and exiting the room.

'I need to talk to you, Asumi.'  
_

Lee did as he said and visited Kaiya the next day as well. The only difference was that he was alone this time. This time, Tenten, Neji and Guy joined him, much to both Kaiya and Lee's relief. They entered the room, guided by no one else but Asuka herself, who just returned from the Hokage's office.

'You're a lucky one, you know?' Asuka told Kaiya. 'Most shinobi don't get this many visitors. _Especially_ ones who bring them food.'

Kaiya looked away, feeling her cheeks boiling. Asuka puffed in disagreement, before exiting the room.

'What?' Tenten asked in oblivion, looking at Kaiya and Lee, who avoided eye-contact.

'Never mind that.' Neji said, figuring out the situation and tensity in the air as an smirk escaped him along with an amused puff, before changing the subject. 'So, Kaiya, how do you feel? We heard from Lee that you had some... surgery?'

'Yep.' Kaiya answered in an strangled voice as she nodded while turned her head, hoping that her cheeks didn't appear as they were set on fire. 'I'm pretty good, to be honest. I hope that they'll let me go by Wednesday.'

'I don't think that'll happen.' Lee said quickly as he looked at Kaiya, blinking slowly.

All heads turned to Lee, who almost regreted his choice.

'I-I I mean, most people need at least two weeks to recover enough from an surgery to do most of their activities.' Lee tried to explained.

'Well, I guess you could say that I'm not like most people.' Kaiya retored in the most serious manner.

While Neji and Tenten began to giggle, Guy felt an smile grow on his face as he watched Lee block. It wasn't unusual for Lee to be verbally attacked, but it _was_ unusual for him to be blocked like that, to make it even worse, he appeared like he didn't attempt to with any of his comebacks.

Kaiya looked at Lee, raising her eyebrows. As she opened her mouth to say something, an quite audible _creak _stopped her, announcing that someone entered the room. All eyes turned to the door that opened, letting two familiar faces enter the chamber.

'H-Here it is, Asu- Akari-sama.' The blonde nurse said, letting an young woman enter.

'Thank you, Kenta.' Asumi answered, without giving Kenta a single glance. 'Hello, everyone.'

Kenta quickly closed the door, along with an screech of terror.

'Hello... who are you, may I ask?' Guy asked, narrowing his eyebrows.

'Oh, I'm Akari.' She smiled. 'You must be Might Guy, am I right?

Guy slowly nodded, overflowing in suspicion.

'I've heard alot about you. It's nice to finally meet you in person.' Asumi stretched one of her hands towards Guy, who took his time in answering to her gesture.

Akari turned to Kaiya, whose eyebrows, just like everyone else's, almost touched each other.

'How... How did you know I was in the hospital?' Kaiya asked, doing her best in sounding calm.

'Word travels fast between the genin team leaders.'

'You're a team leader?' Kaiya asked.

'I used to. My team absolved to jounin last year, but I still keep in touch with my ex-colleague's.'

Guy felt his brain pumping blood. He was a jounin for quite a few years already, but didn't remeber the girl. More importantly... How did she know Kaiya?

'_Ex-colleague's? _What do you mean by that?' Lee asked, the only one brave enough to do so.

'Oh, let's just say that... I got some business in which I had to leave my past behind.' Asumi shrugged, as she set herself on an chair, looking at Kaiya.'But let's not talk about what I did or not. Tell me more about how you got here.'

It was just enough for Guy to shot an look at his students for his message to be heard. The three students looked at him and nodded lightly. Although he felt uneasy with It, it was best if he would leave this to Kaiya. The woman wore an forehead protector with Konoha's symbol on It, and it was difficult to get such thing if you were an outsider.

'Well, we will leave you two to it.' Guy said, as he, along with his students, slowly walked to the door.

Kaiya looked down, unsure of what to say. She didn't really want them to leave because Akari came along, but she wasn't sure of what to say, without making things uncomfortable for everyone. Her teammates each mumbled an goodbye, to which Kaiya tried to answer with an forced smile and an hand wave.

It was after they left that Kaiya felt how her visitor appeared to relax a bit. It wasn't a lie; Asumi _did, _in fact, feel less tense than when they were in the same room. In truth, she knew who Guy was ever since she was a kid, but she figured just a while ago that Guy wasn't as stupid as he liked to appear and that it wouldn't take much time for him to add one to one and realise who she was. She wouldn't talk to him ever again, if she could help it. She turned her attention back on Kaiya, whose expression was now blank.

'Say, Kaiya...' Asumi stopped herself, noticing how Kaiya didn't even mind to give the impression of listening. 'Is there something wrong?'

It was then that Kaiya moved her attention back to Asumi.

'Oh, I-I'm sorry, Akari-san. My mind drifted off to something.' Kaiya rested her head in her palms for a few moments, before fully turning her head to her visitor, forcing a smile.

Asumi looked at the girl. Although the girl seemed to be in an rather stable situation, she had an surgery just an day ago. She would get much out of her in this state. She was now very much aware of how gentle the mission was and how it required a lot of time, maybe even years, and she hated it. Because of her rather short patience, most of her missions don't last more than a month or two, but nobody could say nothing. They were all very effective.

'It must be boring here, all alone.'

'I guess.' Kaiya mumbled.

'I'm sorry, it must be horrible.'

'Don't throw that pity on me.' She suddenly demanded. 'It makes me vomit.'

She didn't like when people tried to see through her point of view and make it pitiful. She needed various things, it was true, but pity was, for sure, not on the list.

Asumi rised her eyebrows in surprise. You didn't see this everyday. On her missions, she saw plenty of people who were suckers for pity and attention.

'You look tired. Maybe you should rest.' Asumi suggested after a few moments' break.

Kaiya looked up to Asumi, her face blank. Everyone told her to rest, but it was easier to say than to do. Looking at the blank walls became boring sometimes, but the quietness, loneliness and safety offered Kaiya something she didn't get very often; time to think.

Her mind could drift off as it pleased, and could settle some things down. The fact that people refused those chances just because they wanted to stick with other people were things Kaiya could never understand.

She watched how Asumi opened the door and left, just before another familiar face to enter.

'At last!' Asuka exclaimed. 'It was _me _who got tired of them.'

Kaiya simply tilted her head into Asuka's direction as she walked towards her with an plate in her hands. Asuka placed the plate on Kaiya's laps.

'There.' She said. 'I'll pass by later to take the plate. I hope it'll be empty by then.'

'Yes, miss.' Kaiya mumbled.

Her meal consisted of some potato puree and a thin schintzel. It didn't look very appetizing, but who was she to comment? Not so long ago, her meals looked worse than She could've easily comment on it, but she couldn't bring herself to it, knowing the answer; eat it or starve.

She began cutting her schnitzel and, without even realising, the piece of meat was gone. She let an burp escape her mouth as she put the plate on her nightstand. She let herself fall into an comfortable position and did the only reasonable and possible thing she could do at the point; letting her mind wander.

Around that time, the thing that crossed her mind the most was the encounter with Temon and Kana. Even though she did what she did, the idea of killing someone didn't hit her as hard as Temon's words.

One of her worst fears was her reaction when someone would bring that subject up, and she felt ashamed with it; she should've controlled herself better. Her colleagues asked about it, something completely natural, but she couldn't bring herself to explain it to them when she couldn't explain it to herself.

In the end, how could she, without making them any more curious? For Now, it was good that they didn't know much on her backstory. If they were to know, they wouldn't be put in any particular danger, but it couldn't be gulped all at once and it may create resentments and fear, rejection an even exile, even. For all she knew, if she were to tell them, she must feel the trust from the bottom of her heart.

**A/N**

**Heh-llo, everyone! Thanks for reading this delayed, short chapter from** **_The Possesions of the Wild! _**

_**Avery-chan, why is it so short?**_

**I-I know, knoow! It **_**is **_**shorter with about a thousand words or so, but I** **couldn't find anything more of use for this chapter, I added some thing for Kaiya's past (****_*high fives inner me*)_**** aaand a chapter is a chapter, so here it is. **

_**But why so delayed? You NEVER post late!**_

**Ok, that ****_might _****not be completely true, but I had a lot of exams and stuff lately, and by the time I was free, I was already tired, thus I** **couldn't bring myself to write much down. Please bear with me, peeps!**

_**Alriiight, anything else to say, in quality of author of this amazing book?**_

**Meh, well, fine. Since** **I was kinda late with this** **chapter and I couldn't make it up with a longer chapter, I'll give you peeps a little spoiler!**

**_A spoiler?! _**

**Indeed, inner me. A spoiler. Here it is: You can let Temon In the past for now, but** **don't** **forget about him. He'll return back later in the story, with more depth.**

**Well, that was it. See you in the next chapter! 3**


	9. Upcoming Exams

**Song: watch?v=kdtLuyWuPDs**

It took days, weeks even until Kaiya was finally allowed to leave. It was already mid-november when Kaiya finally took an step outside her building. Even though they didn't do it daily, her team visited her on a regular basis, making Kaiya to slowly grow fond of them, the feelings being mutual.

'So how was your mission?' Kaiya asked her team, as they left the hospital.

Being in the hospital for a month wasn't the best news you'd hear as a ninja, especially if you lived on your own. For obvious reasons, Guy had to take Lee, Neji and Tenten on a few short D-ranked missions.

'Oh, nothing very interesting.' Tenten said. 'But it was annoying being the only lady in this group again. I felt surrounded by horses who drank too many energy drinks!'

'_Hey!' _Lee and Guy yelled in indignation, making Kaiya let out an snort, which later transformed into an uncontrollable laugh.

'So, what Now?' Kaiya asked, after she and Tenten could control their laughs. 'What's our next mission?'

'The next mission... will have no _u_s, as I won't take part. It will be _your _mission.' Guy stated.

'W-What? What do you mean, sensei?' Tenten asked worryingly. 'Did something happen?'

'Not in particular. It's more of an different mission...' Guy answered, taking his time In choosing his words.

'It's the Chuunin exams.' Neji completed. 'They're right near the corner. We won't be able to do any missions if we want to prepare for the exams.'

An few audible _oh'_s could be heard, as Kaiya looked at them in confusion. She was aware of the ninja rankings, but she didn't know that you needed to take an test. She believed that the Hokage, -or your sensei since they can see your abilities better- would give you an promotion when they believed that you deserved an higher rank. She couldn't bring herself to ask anything, though.

'Well said, Neji.' Guy praised. 'Indeed, we'll have to see how much you have assimilated as a ninja.'

'And... How exactly are we going to do that?' Kaiya asked.

'We'll remain in Konoha.' Guy explained. 'I'll take you to different places such as the training grounds. I'll test you, and then we'll work on your weaker points.'

'Hn.' The four students agreed.

Kaiya did her best in not showing her worry growing inside of her. Most of her abilities were equal to each other, but teamwork was, for sure, a problem. She sat in Konoha for long enough to understand that the people in this country valued teamwork above anything else. She frowned.

'Is there something wrong?' Tenten narrowed her eyebrows.

Kaiya blinked a few times, as she shook her head.

'Sorry, I didn't understand you.' Kaiya said, catching the attention of her teammates.

'Are you ok?' Tenten asked.

'Oh, um, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?' Kaiya puffed, in the best attempt of brushing off.

'Never mind.' Tenten mumbled, obviously giving up.

'So, sensei, when will we start?' Lee asked, excitedly.

'Our training?' Guy raised his eyebrows. 'None of us are in an bad shape, so... how about tomorrow?'

While his colleagues agreed politely with the idea, Lee began sprinting around in excitement.

'And... tomorrow at _what time, _exactly?

They walked down the road, and, as she reached her apartment's street, Kaiya announced her leaving, but was stopped.

'Oh!' Tenten's eyes widened. 'Silly us, we forgot! Guy-sensei, where's the envelope?'

'The envelope?' Guy narrowed his eyebrows. 'Oh, _the _envelope.'

Guy searched his pockets until he found an small envelope with something written on it. He handed to Lee, who approached Kaiya and put it in her hands.

Kaiya looked down at it and squirted her eyes at the writing. It was nothing special but her name on it. She hoped it wasn't any _Hope you get well _cards, otherwise she would vanish in shame. She couldn't help it; she hated those types of cards.

She took her time and slowly opened the envelope. She took an hesitant look to see what was inside of it. She squirted her eyes yet again, as her eyebrows furrowed.

'What's this?' She asked as she raised her doubtful gaze.

'It's your side of money from the last missions Guy-sensei and us went while you were in the hospital.' Lee explained.

'I can see that, but... I was in the hospital, though? I couldn't help you with anything. I don't deserve them.'

'You're _still _part of this team. Besides, it's not like you _chose _to stay in there for so long. You deserve your part.'

Lee gave her one of his big smiles that made him resemble his sensei even more, making Neji frown. _That boy is always so extra._

'Um, thanks, I guess.' Kaiya said, unsure how to react to the situation. 'I'll see you later, then?'

The team bid goodbye to their colleague and, without looking back, they each went on their way to their homes.  
_

Kaiya prepared her body for the run. She arrived at the training grounds not so long ago and, surprisingly enough, she was the second to arrive, the first one being Lee.

After Tenten and Neji arrived, Guy announced that he wanted them each to climb a tree, without using their hands. Kaiya didn't really understand at first, but decided to give it a shot. She backed away a few meters, prepared and ran towards an tree.

She stepped on the tree roots full of moss and pushed herself to the tree nearby with all the force she got. As her legs touched the other tree she pushed herself, yet again, in the opposite direction and grabbed the closest and safest tree branch available. She climbed herself on the particular branch and it wasn't until moments later that she noticed the amazed looks on her sensei and teammates' faces.

'I-is there something wrong?' Kaiya asked, narrowing her eyebrows.

'N-Not at all.' Guy shook his head. 'It's just that... I expected you to do it in an different manner.'

'I'm sorry, sir, but you should have specified that from the beginning. With all respect, but you know very well about how I missed god knows how many training sessions. It's fair that I didn't ask, but even so, nobody bothered to tell me in the slightest bit about what you did outside missions. Thus there is no way i would know how you expect us to do something.'

Through all that, Kaiya kept her eye contact locked on her sensei's without hesitation, unaware of how her teammates' jaws lowered in shock as their eyebrows attempted to grasp each other.

For a few moments, Guy's mouth opened and closed, the only thing coming out of it being air. He wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure of what he should say at all. Half of him intended to apologise, while the other one disagreed in apologizing, but rather comforting the girl.

'Have... Have you ever attempted to perform a jutsu?' Guy finally asked, after a few moments of thought.

Kaiya blinked a few times.

'No, sir.'

'But, what about the academy? The passing test to become genin was to perform an clone jutsu!' Tenten stated, taken aback.

Kaiya looked at Tenten in complete oblivion.

'I... I didn't attend to Konoha's academy.' Kaiya said, bluntly.

'You didn't? Then... were you homeschooled, or what?' Neji asked.

'I guess you could say that.' Kaiya laughed dryly, trying to smooth the uncomfortable situation.

'I didn't know you could do that, Guy-sensei!' Lee exclaimed. 'I heard that you _had_ to attend elementary, unless you've got some disabilities of some kind, but Kaiya-san seems just fine!'

'Oh, no, no, no.' Kaiya waved her hands. 'It's nothing like that!'

Her group looked at her with confused looks on their faces.

'It's nothing of the kind that I couldn't attend the Academy because of some disabilities - _God forbid!-, _but rather that... I just moved here.' Kaiya explained.

'_Wha_t?' Neji spat out.

From the group of four people, Guy was the most calm. He was much more aware of the situation, and it was now that he thought that he should've informed his students better about it. It _was _a important piece of information, but at the time when he found out, he considered that it was better if they didn't tell them, so that they wouldn't turn their backs on her. All he could do for now was hope that they wouldn't.

'I... I simply thought that you were from another class... What's your family name?' Tenten asked.

Kaiya's eyes snapped open.

'Why do you want to know?' Kaiya retored, wrinkling her forehead.

'Oh, you know, I hoped that I might recognise your clan.' Tenten said, taken aback by the obvious rejection.

'Oh, I'm sure you wo-'

Kaiya was about to tell Tenten about her certainty of her not knowing her clan, but got interrupted by some wild screams.

'Stop it, you idiot!'

'_Sasukeeee!' _

_'_Guys, stop it already!'

Two boys appeared in the small meadow, followed closely by an girl. An blonde, spiky-haired boy attempted to attack an dark-haired boy, who defended himslef with almost no effort at all. The two didn't appear to listen to the pinkette, who repeatedly asked them to stop. Kaiya squirted her eyes. _That was Sakura, wasn't it?_ For a moment, Kaiya thought that she felt an distinct smell appear in the air, but brushed the thought, thinking that it was just the other team's smells mixed togheter.

'Now, Now, you two. Would you ever stop?' An tired voice said, as an silver-haired man appeared. 'Sorry for disturbing, Guy.'

The man raised an hand in an apologetic way, along with an smile.

'My eternal rival!' Guy exclaimed in joy, as a few audible sighs could be heard from his team. 'Got 'em out of hand, didn't you, Kakashi?'

'What?' Kaiya murmured, confused by her sensei's actions.

'That man's Hatake Kakashi.' Tenten murmured in response. 'For some reason, he and Guy-sensei are rivals.'

Kaiya mouthed an _oh _as she watched the action between the two men.

'It's not my fault, Kakashi-sensei!' The blonde boy cried.

While the dark-haired boy gave an light _hn, _Sakura didn't hesitate to give Naruto an audible _bonk!_ on his head.

'Just leave Sasuke-kun alone and shut up, Naruto!' Sakura yelled.

'Ow, it hurts Sakura-chan~' Naruto cried.

_Well, that's a way to know them, _Kaiya considered.

'You know, _m_y team was just preparing for the Chuunin exams. We were revising their skills.' Guy praised, as Sakura still scolded an pained Naruto.

'Oh, cool.' Kakashi shrugged; even though he didn't really care about Guy's activities, he wasn't going to make a fool of himself. 'We were doing something very similar, actually. Come on, you three.'

'I won't, unless this idiot learns to be more tolerable!' Naruto said, pointing to Sasuke.

'_Shut up!'_ Sasuke barked.

Kakashi sighed. There were moments when he wished he didn't have to deal with those two goofballs. Did Minato-sensei feel the same way when he had him and Obito in his team? At least _they _had the decency to stop as soon as they started a fight.

He took Naruto under one of his arms and Sasuke under the other and started to walk away.

'_Let's go.' _Kakashi said in an now quiet, but deadly manner, quieting the two boys' protest.

Even after the group left, it remained quiet in Kaiya's group.

'Alright.' Guy eventually said. 'So, as Kaiya had fairly stated, she missed a bit of our training. Does any of you want to explain to her about the chakra control?'

Tenten raised her hand, after a few moments of hesitation.

'Tenten!' Guy called out, glad for an volunteer.

'So, you know what chakra is, right?' Kaiya nodded. 'Well, the exercise Guy-sensei just asked us to do was about chakra control. So, you're supposed to take the chakra in you and focus it on different places of your body; your legs, for instance. Doing that helps you climb trees, mountains, and, if you train yourself well, even walk on water. Have you ever tried it?'

'Not until now.' Kaiya admitted.

Kaiya sprinted off the branch she was sitting on and landed safely on the ground. She analysed the tree's root for a moment.

'So, I've got to focus my chakra in my legs?'

'Yep.'

She didn't really understand about how she should do that, but she tried imagining it. Her mother told and showed her quite a bit about chakra and its use, so it was easy seeing it in her head. Then, it came the more complicated. She tried seeing her chakra going down to her soles and, after a few seconds of meditation, she took a few steps back and began running towards the tree. She did the same as she did before and stepped on the tree roots, now in an more trusting manner.

This time, she didn't jump on the other trees, but did her best from keeping herself from doing so. She stepped on the tree and actually managed to take a few steps horizontally, before miserably falling to the ground. She groaned as she massaged her forehead. What did she expect? Of course she wouldn't succeed from her first attempt.

'Alright.' Guy said. 'It's good for a first try, and now you know one thing you'll have to work on. I'm afraid we won't practice the chakra control now, since the others are handling it pretty Well, and I won't keep them working on something they're already capable of. For now, we'll have to move on to another few pin-points. How about we see how you all handle kunais and shuriken?'

Three of the four genin nodded as they sprinted from the trees they were sitting in and followed their sensei, who was planning onto leading them in an place arranged for such training. As they closed the distance between them and their sensei, one of them hesitated and looked at Kaiya, who was still on the ground.

'Are you coming? Let me help you.' Lee said, as he offered one of his hands.

'I can do it myself, thank you.' Kaiya shook her head, before getting to her feet and joining the rest of her team in an annoyed manner.

Lee blinked a few times, assimilating what just happened, as an smile could twitch on his face. He wasn't surprised by the fact that his offer got rejected, but by the fact that he could understand Kaiya's reactions.

The training continued on and, without them even realising, the day was already in its late afternoon stage.

'Oh Well, then. I believe it's enough for today. Let's meet again tomorrow, same place and hour.' Guy said, nearly out of breath.

Even though he practically _was_ stronger than his students, they weren't stupid and figured just as much that dealing with four people attacking you for a couple of hours _did_ drain your energy.

Guy took his backpack from an nearby tree and, as he looked how his students bid him an goodbye before leaving, he noticed someone didn't mind to do neither of the two.

Kaiya sat herself comfortable on the ground with her back leaning onto an tree, enjoying the last bits of water she still had with her.

'Aren't you going home?' Guy asked, somewhat concerned.

Lee, who was just about to leave, stopped from what he was doing and turned his attention to what Kaiya's response would be.

'Hm, I'll go later.' Kaiya answered, surp rised by the man's question.

'Are you sure? I mean-'

'Don't worry, sir. I doubt there would happen something, but if there _wer_e something to happen, I think I'll survive it somehow.'

'Oh?'

Guy couldn't find anything to say, as the girl had an point. Konoha _was, _for sure, an safe village. The chance of something threatening to happen was small. Well, it was, ever since the Kyubi's attack from over a decade ago.

'Alright.' He eventually said. 'Just be careful. It would be a pity if you wouldn't be able to even get an chance to the Chuunin exams.'

Kaiya nodded and assured him that she would be careful, half-heartedly. She didn't really show any particular interest in those exams, knowing that passing them would only mean more responsibility and risk. Leaving that aside, she never went easy on herself when training.

'Hey.' Lee said, letting his bag drop next to Kaiya, who jumped a little in shock.

Kaiya looked up with a questioning look.

'Can I help you?' She asked.

'I want you to fight me.' Lee said in an demanding manner.

'What? That's-' Kaiya began, as she shook her head.

'Much to not only _your_ benefit, but also mine.' Lee explained. 'I assumed you want to train. Am I right?'

Kaiya said nothing, allowing him to continue.

'Well, if you do, you could have me as an opponent. I'm not _that _tired, so we could fight each other a little longer, improving ourselves better.'

Kaiya thought for a moment, considering his offer. Having an opponent without being in actual danger _did _sound good to her.

'Fine,' She accepted,' but don't get angry if I turn out to be stronger.'

Lee narrowed his eyebrows as Kaiya got to her feet, making the difference between their heights obvious. It was true that the girl had her skills, but as long as she didn't take part of an Kekkei Genkai-possessing clan, she shouldn't be much trouble just yet.

Still, he felt like he felt like he shouldn't underestimate her. He watched how Kaiya created an few meters distance between them, before turning at him, with an smirk appearing on her face.

'Hello, Guy.' The Hokage greeted. 'How can I help you?'

'Good evening, Lord Hokage.' Guy bowed. 'I apologize for disturbing you at this late hour, but I wanted to talk to you about something in particular. My team, to be more specific.'

'Hm?' The Hokage raised his eyebrows.

He was fully aware that Guy was one the few sensei that had at least one complicated student in their teams. Guy explained how he took his students to train, and made a short description on each of his students' abilities and behaviour, but when it came to Kaiya, he took a small break, unsure of where to start.

'What about Kaiya?' The Third asked.

'Well, she seems to be on good terms with everyone, but it's obvious that she doesn't say everything she has on her mind.' Guy spoke carefully. 'Wouldn't blame her, though.'

'You said you took them training today?' Guy nodded. 'What are her skills?'

'Well, she is a good defender in a fight, has good aiming skills and can use kunais pretty well. She owns a tachi sword, but I can't evaluate her skills with It, since I never really used a sword. She would have an promising career, but she lacks chakra control. She even admitted herself that she never attempted to use ninjutsu.'

The Hokage looked at Guy confused.

'She didn't? Well, in that case, when you attempt to teach your students different ninjutsus, I would ask you to pay an closer look to her. If I remember correctly, one of your students, Rock Lee, has an similar issue and now is training his best to master taijutsu.'

'Yes, sir.' Guy lowered his head; Lee was always an more sensible subject for him.

'I find it odd that a kid her age never attempted to mold chakra. Did she... say anything of her past?'

'She stated that she was homeschooled, and one of my students, Tenten, even asked her about her family name. She hesitated in revealing her name, and, just as she got cornered on it, she had the luck that Kakashi's students interrupted, as they ran on our field.'

The Hokage nodded in understanding.

'Do you have any idea on what she might be doing now?'

'She said she wanted to remain on the training grounds longer. She wants to train a little more, most likely.'

'I see.' The Third Hokage took another puff from his pipe. 'Well, since you said that you'll remain around Konoha for awhile training with your students, I might send someone with sword skills to see how Kaiya handles her taichi. I'll leave you decide when the person might come along.'

'You may send someone as soon as you find the right person. I won't mind another hand.'

The Hokage nodded and, after Guy assured him that he told him everything, was left alone in his office. It didn't take long for him to choose someone. Of course, there were quite a few people who mastered swords just fine, but he needed someone do the work more internally. And he knew just the right person.

_**A/N**_

**Hey, there!**

**Thanks for reading the 9th chapter of this book! It would mean alot if you'd tell me what your thoughts are in the comments. Who do you think that will test Kaiya's skills with her taichi?**

**Continuing, I originally wanted to make this chapter longer until the end of Kaiya and Lee's fight, but I** **was** **like, 'You** **know what, the chapter is already long enough. Don't tire your readers, Avery.'**

**Don't worry, the next chapter would (hopefully) be out next week. **

**For anything else, if it happens that you like historical fiction and European culture, you might enjoy my other book, ****_Roses always have thorn_****s(shameless self-promotion) on Wattpad (I have the same username). It's about an 11 year-old Austrian girl named Rosemary who wants to find an man she suspects to be her uncle. Not the best promotion ever( \\_(°~°)_/), but I say it's worth a try.**

**See you in the next chapter! :)**


	10. A fight

Asumi felt her eyes widen in surprise. Since she didn't take part in the girl's mission, she was curious of the girl's capabilities. It was true that, just as everyone else, she was surprised by the fact that Kaiya never used chakra, but she was more impressed by how she managed to replace ninjutsu with other capabilities. She sat herself more comfortable as she watched the fight between her and one of her teammates, careful not to be noticed.

Lee jumped a few meters back and set himself into an ready for attack position.

'You're good in taijutsu, Kaiya-san.' Lee said, through heavy breathing of exhaustion.

'Thanks... I guess. You too.' Kaiya returned the compliment in no better situation than her opponent, as she analysed and calculated his movements.

She didn't see him fight before, so learning his choice of movements would be a crucial thing in the future, if she was going to fight along or even against him. Just like her, he didn't appear to prefer using any ninjutsu, and that simplified things greatly. She just needed to find the loophole.

She attempted to kick him with her leg and, just as he thought he got her after getting a grip on her leg, Lee was thrown on the other side of the meadow. Kaiya stretched her spine into an straight position and looked how Lee quickly took control on his body, gained balance and got back on his feet.

Lee looked at the girl with his eyebrows raised. She proved to have both physical and tactical strength with each move. Maybe he should try brining the fight to the next level. Just as he was about to take the next step, something stopped him.

_'Watch out!'_ Kaiya shrieked.

Instinctively, Lee looks around in confusion. Nothing. For a second, he expected Kaiya to attack him, but as he looked to her, he noticed her standing frozen, her eyes wide open and full of shock.

'What?' He asked.

'There's someone there.' Kaiya yelled, now in an slightly more calm manner.

Lee looked, yet again, around him. Nobody.

'Kaiya-san, there's no one here.' Lee stated, confused. What kind of trick was this?

Asumi narrowed her eyebrows while squirting her eyes in confusion. She was a sensor-type, and yet she couldn't feel any new chakra around them. What was Kaiya talking about? She was sure that the girl was smarter than to choose the old trick.

'N-nevermind.' Kaiya shook her head, positioning herself for the next attack.

Although he was aware of how weird his teammate came up with it, before brushing it off like that, Lee thought for the better and chose to forget about it for the moment.

Kaiya watched with her eyebrows narrowed how Lee crouched and reached for something attached to his legs. _Were those weights? _Lee let his weights gently on the ground and stood up with an confident look in his eyes. How much difference would those weights make? Little did she know how wrong she was. Only so, so, wrong.

Without even noticing, Lee disappeared. Kaiya looked around in an confused manner, as panic crippled upon her. Where did he go? She stood still for a few moments, trying to take into account every sound and movement around her.

For a second, she thought she heard something above her and instinctively looked up. She did that just in time in order to avoid getting her head into the ground just like an ostrich.

We could say that Lee landed safely, leaving aside the fact that he made a crater in the ground. He looked up with surprise in his eyes; she was the only genin who dodged his attack, aside from Neji.

Kaiya made a few calculations in her head, before digging her hand in an small bag she always had tied around her upper hips. She eventually scooped out a kunai, which she threw in Lee's direction, but missed by a few centimetres. The kunai hit the ground and, taking advantage of the fact that Lee followed, even for a second, the Kunai's whereabouts, Kaiya attacked.

She ran towards Lee and attempted to put him to the ground, but, unlucky for her, the only thing she got was a leg kicking her head. She took an grip on his moving leg and tried to make him loose balance. As Lee was already at an amazing level of taijutsu for his age, it wasn't hard to dodge the attack, putting Kaiya to the ground with an loud _thud._

Due to all the power with which her back his the ground, Kaiya groaned in pain as she felt how the air left her lungs in less than a second. Lee landed safely on the ground and watched how Kaiya's body stiffened while still on the ground. He closed the distance between them and kneeled next to her.

'Are you alright?' Lee asked, with a shade of worry in his voice.

'I'm fine.' Kaiya groaned.

Kaiya tried to get to her feet, but just as she straightened her back, she flinched as an pain shot through her back. Lee hurried to her aid and tried to support her, but she pushed him off with an growl.

'_Don't touch me._' She growled as she took a few steps back. 'I'm fine.'

She tensed her body and prepared for Lee's next attack. Iuf Lee would've not payed attention at that exact moment, he would've not noticed an flash of pain in Kaiya's eyes.

'Let's end it here.' Lee suggested, relaxing his body in order to support his point.

'_I'm fine._' Kaiya insisted, tensing her body even more.

She wasn't going to give up yet, and she was sure that the boy still had some energy within as well. Lee felt an smirk appear on his face, much to Kaiya's confusion.

'Fine, then.' He mumbled.

'What was that?' Kaiya asked.

Without getting the chance to even notice him coming, Kaiya was put to the ground unable to get up. She fought as much as she could, but she could get rid of the strong grip on her hands that were now tied to her back. She tilted her head and noticed how Lee was sitting near comfortably on her back, with an quite effective technique of blocking her attacks.

Seeing how most of her body was blocked and stuck into an uncomfortable position with almost no way out, Kaiya couldn't help but felt how her heart accelerate. She never had a thing for not being able to move freely; it always made her anxious.

She's been through this before and wanted to avoid going to further stages of panic. For a moment, she stopped moving and took in a breath in attempt to calm down. Noticing how she didn't fight back, Lee made the mistake of loosening the grip he had on Kaiya's arms.

Feeling herself a little more free, Kaiya pushed all the energy remained in her arms and freed herself. She pushed Lee off her and, in the flick of a moment, the tables turned as Lee found himself with his arms stuck at his back and a kunai at his neck.

Lee fought back and got Kaiya off. The only problem was that Kaiya didn't loosen her grip on his arms, thus pulling him down as well. As he fell, Lee turned around trying to figure out what just happened, only to see an shocked Kaiya who released her grip on him and who unsuccessfully tried to save herself from being crushed by him.

Asumi looked at the two in interest. It was obvious how the girl did have somewhat skills in hand-to-hand combat, but she was still a child. She let an small snort escape her mouth. What amazing power could she expect from a kid who just became a ninja? For all she could see, she just had to wait and see. She shook her head in amusement and watched the two young shinobi's progress in training.

Kaiya's heart skipped a beat. Her nose was millimetres away from Lee's, who appeared just as shocked as her. The two locked eyes and Kaiya felt how her body went stiff with embarrassment as her cheek twitched. The following few quiet seconds felt like an eternity, until Kaiya decided to fake an cough, waking Lee up to reality.

'Um-yeah, we-we should stop it here. I'm kinda tired.' Lee excused himself with an embarrassed expression as he got off Kaiya.

'Agreed.' Kaiya nodded, before quickly getting to her feet and hopping towards her backpack. 'See you tomorrow!'

Lee watched how Kaiya took her backpack and forced an smile to come out along with an wave towards him, before leaving in a hurried manner. Now _that_ was awkward.

He hoped that they would both pretend like it didn't happen. He learned his lesson a month ago, when Kaiya just joined their team and saved them. He didn't want to break things just yet. Lee sighed and, for a second, prayed that everything would go well between him and Kaiya, otherwise it would be bad.

Very bad.

**_A/N_**

**Heyy, peeps! How's it going?**

**Here we are, with chapter 10! What do you guys think?**

**In this chapter, I wanted to focus on Kaiya's fight. I'm not really good at writing fight scenes and i know it might be bad, but I tried my best with it. I hope you liked it. :/**

**Moving on, we're mid-november and Christmas is near the corner, so I'm gonna ask this: ****_Should I_**_** do an Christmas**_**_ special? _**

**If so, what kind of special** **would you prefer? An double chapter, an filler... i don't know. You tell me.**

**That would be it for now, see you in the next chapter! :)**


	11. Conclusion

Neji walked down the street, still rubbing off the sleep from himself. It was still dark outside, but knowing his sensei, he stopped questioning why he was requested to train at such early hours in the morning quite some time ago.

As he walked on an dark alley close to the training grounds, his mind seemed to wander off to different things. The Chūunin exams were about a week away, and he seemed to get an doze of worry that was bigger than usual.

In his opinion, he couldn't blame himself, people _did _die there. But he wouldn't be an genin for the rest of his life, for sure. Even though he wasn't from the main house, that couldn't be his fate as a Hyuuga, could it?

For a second, he wondered if his cousin, Hinata, would pass the exams, but he quickly brushed the doubts from his mind with the conclusion that she was yet too weak, both mentally and physically, to do such an thing. He hoped that he wouldn't have anything to do with her there. If She were to die, it wouldn't be his fault, would It?

His thoughts flow was interrupted by an loud laugh, which made him look around with caution. The sun was rising, and his legs were wet due to the wet, long grass around him.

It didn't take long for Neji to realise how the laugh he heard moments before came from one of him team members, who was standing about a hundred metres away.

Kaiya looked at Tenten, tears streaming from her eyes as she held her stomach with one of her hand, while the other covered her mouth. She couldn't help it; the laughter just wouldn't cease.

'What's so funny?' Neji asked, as he approached the two girls.

The two girls turned to him and, just as Tenten opened her mouth to say something, someone took the chance before her.

'They're laughing at some girl things.'

Neji looked up and noticed Lee sitting on an branch above them with an exasperated expression.

'_Girl things?_" Neji repeated, with an tent of confusion in his voice.

'Don't be like that, Lee.' Tenten scoffed as she became serious, before turning to Neji. 'I was just telling Kaiya about how we went on that horrible mission once when we had to catch those chickens, and we couldn't find the last one.'

'The one when I had to use my Byakugan for thirty minutes only to find that rooster in an old barn nearby?'

'That one.' Tenten confirmed, feeling her smile returning to her face. 'It was very fun, right?'

'The lady threatened us to not pay anything, though.' Lee stated blankly.

'What are you implying, Lee?' Neji tilted his head to an side. 'Mad from the early hours of morning?'

The two began arguing, and it didn't take more than a few provocative answers from Neji to get Lee to jump from his seat and provoke Neji to fight him.

The two girls sighed, both now used to their male teammates' temperament. They fought like that everyday and Kaiya even shared her surprise on how the two could be compatible when something serious.

'Hey, has anyone seen Guy-sensei?' Kaiya asked. 'He should've been here an good fifteen minutes ago.'

The two boys stopped fighting for a moment, realising how Kaiya was right. If there was to be an competition on being punctual, there was no doubt that Guy would win not once, not twice, but multiple times.

'Sorry for the delay, kids.' An familiar voice said.

The team of four turned around to see their sensei with his usual big smile, but this time, accompanied by someone. Someone suspiciously familiar.

'_You!'_ Tenten exclaimed in recognision.

'Yes, me.' The woman answered calmly, with an polite smile on her face.

'Akari-san!' Kaiya said, the only one who appeared happy or glad in any way to see her. 'What are you doing here?'

'I knew how you got into an team, but i never really got to see you in action.' Asumi lied. 'I guess i got curious.'

Kaiya squirted her eyes in confusion for a moment, but cleared her mind quick enough. Konoha's mark layed engraved in the piece of metal over the headband that, yet again, stayed proudfully upon Asumi's forehead. Akari was part of Konoha. Why shouldn't she trust her?

The three genin already knew Asumi, after seeing her every now and then when visiting Kaiya in the hospital, something much to Guy's relief.

He never dared to admit to his students about it, but he felt insecure about Asumi's presence. After her first appearance in the hospital, he thought alot about who she was and hr could swear having vague memorie of her being present in different groupings of ninja around Konoha, but something seemed to be off. The problem was he couldn't figure out what.

'_Alright_. Back to busniess.' Guy clapped his hands togheter. 'Today, we will focus on taijutsu, or in other words, martial arts or empty hand combat.'

The four students looked at him with uneasy.

'It's pointless.' Neji mumbled, that without escaping Guy's refined ears.

'_Good question, Neji!' _Guy said, his smile widening. 'Why do we need taijutsu? I suppose i could explain it to you in an easy and common manner, _but _i think that _maybe _someone else could do better than that. Could you do the honors, Tenten?'

Asumi smiled. Guy didn't shame the boy for having doubts, but he took advantage of them to show him the answer to them. Pity that there aren't more people like him, she thought.

'Taijutsu is, just as Guy-sensei said, an hand to hand combat that doesn't require chakra or weapons. It can be a very useful and favorable option if you can't use any other kind of defense, but also very disadvantageous if you aren't in a very good physical position, if you're sick or out of energy, for example.'

Guy praised Tenten for the good explanaiton, and continued on how they were going to practive different kind of approachings and defendings in a fight. Just as Kaiya and Tenten planned to team up, an hand was layed on Kaiya's shoulder. Both girls turn around to find Asumi smiling awkwardly while rubbing the back of her neck.

'Hey, um, i heard that you're a sword user?' Asumi asks.

'Yeah, i own a tachi.'

Kaiya rememberd about how she once stated how she owned a sword while returning back from their mission to the Sand village, and simply assumed that Guy must've simply mentioned it to her.

'Awesome! Do you have it here?'

'Actually, it's still in my apartmemt. Why?'

Asumi grabbed something from her back and it was then that Kaiya noticed what she was carrying with her. Asumi made a quick movement with her sword, before impaling the ground with it and leaning herself onto it. It was an long, shiny sword that Kaiya estimated to be just a little longer than her own sword.

'Is that an Katana?' Kaiya asked.

'Ah, yes. Since I'm a kenjutsu user as well, you know, i hoped for a match, between sword sisters, like us.'

'Sword sisters?' Tenten asked

'Well, you know what they say,' Asumi said, before Kaiya joined her, 'Blood won't connect you, but an sword always will.'

The two sword-using girls laughed for a moment or two and Tenten wanted to say something about that, but remained quiet, going along with her better judgement.

'Well, we could have a match sometime, i s'pose.' Kaiya shrugged.  
_

'Hey, would you mind a match?'

Neji narrowed his eyebrows at Kaiya's question. For the two hours, Guy showed them some moves, and now left them to practice them on their own. It was true that the best way to do it implied fighting with another human being, but he didn't see the point of trying, if he was going to win effortlessly.

'You should be careful, Neji.' Lee warned just as Neji opened his mouth to decline. 'Yesterday, she has beaten me.'

Neji turned around with an suspicious look.

'You guys fought yesterday.' Neji said in an accusative manner.

'Yeah.' Kaiya tilted her head to the left.

Air left her lungs as she felt the ground moving from under her legs. She gained her balance quickly and succesfully landed on the ground.

Kaiya looked at her opponent and noticed an flicker of surprise in his eyes. He placed himself ready for the next attack.

She ran towards Neji and attempted to serve him some kicks with her arms and legs, only to get the taste of her own medicine.

As the two fought, the rest of the team watched them with interest in their eyes.

'Say, Lee, so you had an brawl with her?' Guy asked, not getting his eyes off the two teenagers.

'Yeah.' Lee answered. 'We do that every now and then, but it either ends in her favor or on ties most of the time. The first time we fought, she managed to turn the odds against me even after i took my weights off.'

'Did she really?' Guy became more interested in his student.

'Weights?' Asumi asked, analysing Lee. 'What weights?'

'These.' Lee pointed to the weights tied to his legs. 'They have about fifty kilograms on them, but i want to get them to sixty by spring.'

Asumi nearly chocked on her own spit.

'How old were you, again?' She asked

'Thirteen, miss.' Came the answer.

'Akari-san, are you alright?' Tenten asked the now pale-looking woman.

'Guy-san, why is that boy having-' she whispered.

'He wants to be strong, and his will is great. I personally take care of him and am not going easy. You don't need to worry, though. If he won't be able to do that today, he sure will be able to do so tomorrow.' Guy answered proudly.

'Right.' Asumi cleared her throat as she turned her attention back to Kaiya and Neji.

Kaiya breathed heavily as she prepared for Neji's next attack, analysing his every move. He surely had stronger than Lee.

She watched how Neji stood still for a few moments, taking control of hus breath.

_'Byakugan!' _He said with a blink from his eyes, as the veins around them enlarged greatly.

Kaiya had a feeling of dejà vu. She've seen those eyes before, didn't she? She didn't get the chance to meditate to it, as Neji clapped his hands togheter, an sign that he was about to use an jutsu.

Of course, the jutsu he chose to use was going to use an unecessary amount of chakra and it would leave him use only taijutsu from that point on to the fight, but he wanted to see something. He wanted to see if fate would allow him to go as far as using an technique that wasn't meant for him on a living being.

If fate allowed him to do so, all he would hope for was that word wouldn't get out that he was practicing it.

_'Eight trigrams sixty-four palms!'_

He spread his left arm as he jumped into the air, before pushing himself towards Kaiya. Kaiya could sniff the highness of danger the jutsu would bring, and attempted to back out in order to avoid it, only to end in failure. _She had to do something, and quick. _Neji landed in front of her implanting his index and middle finger from both his hands deep onto different parts of her body.

_'Two palms.' _He announced, before repeating the move. _'Four palms.'_

The count continued as his moves quickened. His moves were so quick, she didn't get a single moment to attack back.

_'Sixty-four palms.' _He finally said, taking a final step, willing to give Kaiya a final kick, only to be surrounded by loads of mist.

As the mist cleared out, Neji searched for Kaiya, only to find an log where Kaiya should've been.

Neji took a few steps back, deactivating his Byakugan.

'What? When did she learn that tehnique?' Lee asked, surprised.

They didn't fight very recently, but he never expected Kaiya to learn anything but taijutsu.

'She's smart. She tricked us to think she couldn't use ninjutsu.' Neji said blankly, his eyes squirting.

'_Correction, _i didn't lie, and i never got to _learn _ninjutsu until now.' Kaiya's voice could be heard from somewhere above them.

The group could tell she was sitting in a tree, but couldn't give an exact locasion. But of course they couldn't. Camouflage was her best skill.

She could tell that Neji's ninjutsu used nearly all of his recources. As she aproximated all the energy it must've costed, Kaiya felt sure on the fact that his body wouldn't be able to repeat the move for that day, until he regained an significant amount of chakra back.

She stuck her hand in her small purse tied to her upper hip. Kaiya took an shiny kunai out of her bag. She gave it a glimpse and couldn't help but smirk. She bought it just recently, and its fresh look made Kaiya feel hesitation in harming it.

She tightened her grip on it, before making her way into beating Neji.

She jumped towards Neji and succeded in giving him an hit, only for Neji to grip on her leg and pull Kaiya to the ground. Kaiya pushed all the remaining energy into her stuck leg and made Neji for a second.

She took advantage and attempted to make her last move by blocking Neji from further steps, only for her kunai to be snached from her hand and for the tables to turn against her. In the split of a second, it was her who had an kunai at her neck. Even though she was tired and had an obvious disadvantage, Kaiya didn't stop from trying to escape his grip. He didn't hesitate in pressing the kunai against Kaiya's neck, putting pressure on it.

'Just give up. I won and you know it.' Neji growled from behind her.

'_Never.'_

'Why? This is your fate. Accept-'

'I don't really believe in fate. The reason why i don't stop know is quite simple, actually.' Kaiya answered with an smirk on her face. 'I accept that i can't change the past, but can control the future.'

Kaiya felt how an shot of shock went through Neji and took advantage of it. She turned around suddenly and punched him in the face with her remaining force. Neji fell to the ground and so did Kaiya, who now threw a coughing fit.

As Guy and his team went to Kaiya's aid, Neji remained on the ground, full of confusion. The last thing on his mind before he fainted were Kaiya's words.

_... I accept that i can't change the past, but control the future._

**A/N**

**Heyo, everyone! What's up?**

_**So, **_**here we are, with chapter eleven. Pretty cool, right? I wanted to focus awhile on Kaiya's training with team Guy(which is my favourtie team tbh), before beginning with the Chuunin Exams and Orochimaru's attack.**

**What did you guys think of this chapter, anyway?**

**Let me know in the comments. See you in the next chapter!**


	12. Familiar faces

**Hey everyone! With this chapter, I'll take on the second Naruto arc, the chūnin exams. Before starting this chapter, I want to say that I didn't see this arc in a very long time, so I might leave out one or two things out by accident, write the dialogues slightly differently or change some scenes. With that being said, enjoy!**

'Sakura, I will protect you with my life!' Lee announced as he gave a thumbs-up, along with a wide, proud smile.

'Cut it out, Lee!' Tenten demanded as she approached her teammate alongside Neji and Kaiya.

The group of genin walked down a hallway full of people who appeared around their ages. As they finally reached Lee, Kaiya couldn't help but sigh. _Boys. _

She shook her head with a sigh.

'Sorry 'bout that.' Kaiya said. 'You're Sakura, correct?'

'Um, yes-'

'And you are?' A dark-haired boy interrupted nonchalantly.

'Kaiya, nice to meet you.' She answered in the same manner before her nose wrinkled. 'Something stinks here.'

She covered her nose and looked around, trying to locate the source of the smell, as everyone gave her questioning looks.

'Kaiya-chan, I smell nothing...' Tenten said confused.

'Please don't address to me with _chan_, alri- _You!' _

Kaiya moved with lightning speed through the hall. Next thing her teammates saw was Kaiya with her arm stretched, pushing someone against the wall, making deep, growl-like sounds.

Whatever talks were held in the hallway stopped, letting the air to be filled with silence. Kaiya felt how an unnecessary amount of attention was put on her, and freed her victim, letting him drop to the ground.

As people slowly began to stop looking at Kaiya and continued their conversations, Kaiya crouched next to the boy, giving him a cold look.

'What are you doing here?' She whispered.

'I live here!' He exclaimed in surprise. 'What are _you _doing here? You're supposed to be in the Land of-'

'_Shush!' _Kaiya hissed, barely retaining herself from covering that idiot's mouth.

'Huh? Do you and Kiba know each other?' Tenten asked behind her.

Kaiya closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before getting up.

'I guess you could say that.' She answered coldly as she walked past them. 'Let's go.'

The three students from Team Guy looked in curiosity after the girl who walked away in a decisive manner.

'I _still _can't believe you went out to brawl like that, Lee!' Tenten said, massaging her forehead.

'I've told you already! He's-' Lee protested.

'_Doesn't. Matter. _You're about to take an exam that might promote you to Chūunin rank, and you're going to throw your energy out the window like that?'

The bowl-cut boy began explaining something to her, but with no effect as Kaiya's attention was taken by something else.

'I am Uzumaki Naruto and I'll beat all of you, dattebayo!'

People from the large room began to growl as they looked at the blonde boy. Kaiya watched how a familiar pinkette bonked him on the head, as a dark-haired boy told him to quiet down before a boy with glasses and white hair caught in a ponytail approached them.

As her eyes locked on the white-haired boy, Kaiya couldn't help but notice how he was carrying some cards. Even though it was a lot of rambling in the room, Kaiya heard pieces from what the boy presented, and couldn't help but feel curious.

_'Kaiya!' _

Kaiya jumped a little in surprise. She faced her team, who gave her curious looks.

'Oh, um, sorry.' She laughed dryly as she gave them a small smile. 'My mind drifted away.'

She tried to pay attention to what her group was talking about, but her curiosity on what the other boy was talking about was much greater. As always, the curiosity killed the cat.

'Hey, I want to check on something. I'll be right back.' She said quickly and left, before anyone could say anything.

She rested her hands in her pockets and approached the small group with interest. The white-haired boy was on his knees with cards in front of him, and the blonde boy and his team listening carefully.

'Weird boy, that Gaara, if you ask me.' The boy said. 'Who else did you want to know about?'

'Kaiya.' The pinkette answered.

'What's about me?' Kaiya narrowed her eyebrows.

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, as a few heads turned to her.

'You're Kaiya?' A dark-haired boy next to her asked with cold, yet curious eyes.

'Indeed. I don't believe we've met.'

'We didn't.' He answered, the darkness in his eyes intensifying.

'Kaiya... I think I heard of you. What's your family name?' The white-haired boy answered. 'Takahashi? Katuunko?'

Kaiya's cheek twitched as she analysed what the boy was doing.

'No, and there's no way you would know me. Why do you need to know? What's this, anyway?' She asked, pointing to the boy's cards. 'I don't see why you'd need my, or anyone else's, name for some silly card game.'

'It's not some silly game.' The boy laughed as he pushed his glasses up. 'It's-'

'_Prove it.' _

The white-haired boy blinked a few times in surprise.

'Alright, then.' He eventually said. 'Let me see... You know the third Hokage, right? Look at this.'

He took a card and slammed it on the ground, before spinning it. A bit of smoke arised and the once blank card now displayed a photo and some writing which Kaiya could only assume to be information. The boy handed Kaiya the card and let her read at her own pace.

She saw the picture of the old man in his usual Kage clothing. Next to the picture was his full name, along with some other details, such as his rank and old teams. She looked at the number of missions he made and nearly choked on her own spit when seeing the number of A and S-ranked missions he completed. As her last reaction came along, an chuckle could be heard.

'He's strong, isn't he? I think that by now, you figured out what these cards help with.' The white-haired boy said.

'Info cards.' She said bluntly.

'Exactly. They're some rather special cards I own. These cards here,' he points at the small card tower next to his knees. 'are chakra-based cards. They will be blank until I fuse my chakra in them.'

'I see.' Kaiya nodded, before turning to Sakura. 'Well, just so you know, there's nothing you need to know about me. My life isn't particularly interesting, I'm not some criminal on the run, and nor am I a spy; I'm not a very good actor. I do have my backstory, but as I told you before, there's no use in hearing who I am if you can't relate or at least understand who and why I am.'

The group remained silent. Kaiya turned around to walk away, but before she did that, she looked at the dark-haired boy whose eyes sat squirted in her direction.

'By the way,' she said, 'you smell weird.'

Just as the boy was to say something, he got interrupted. Some phoney-looking boys appeared in front of them, with threatening looks. One of them came with threats to which the blonde boy named Naruto didn't do but fuelled them.

'You!' A voice roared behind them. 'Ninjas from the Sound Village! During these exams, you're not allowed to fight without a proctor's permission. I want to believe you are aware of that.'

Behind them sat a bold man with some large scars on his face.

'And who are you exactly, sir?' One of the Sound Village ninja asked cockily.

'My name's Ibiki Morino, and I will be your proctor for the Chūunin exams's first stage.' The man said solemnly. 'I will ask you to explain your behaviour.'

'I'm sorry sir.' One of them said, obviously not sorry. 'I suppose we overreacted.'

Kaiya could hear some small chuckles coming from the group, but didn't dare to speak up. _That's none of my busniess.,_ she thought, _I just hope I won't have anything to do with_ _them._

**A/N**

**Hey guys! Thanks for reading this chapter. It means really much that you do that. :)**


	13. The first stage

'I am Ibiki Morino, and I will be your proctor for the Chūunin exams. But from now on, your worst enemy.'

Kaiya fidgeted with her pencil nervously as she looked around the room. Like it wasn't enough to have the imposing presence of a man who wore nothing but black clothes, but another few masked shinobi around the class with notepads in their hands.

'In front of you lays a blank paper.' He explained. 'On its other side lay ten questions- no, don't turn the page around yet. You will be given one hour to complete all of them except the tenth one. Do you understand?'

There were some murmurs of 'yes'.

'I hope so. Before you begin, I might have to mention that you're not allowed to cheat. If you _do, _my assistants,' he pointed to the shinobi around the class, '_will _notice and you'll be disqualified. Not only you but the rest of your team as well. I would watch out if I were you. You may begin... _now.' _

The silent room filled with crumbling sounds as everyone turned their pages around. Kaiya wrote her name down and looked over the questions laid before her.

For a few seconds, her mind was blank. _She didn't understand any of this. _

Since she was never the one to learn through theories, but through actual practice, the questions that lay before her looked like Chinese.

One thing was clear for her; she was going to fail this, for sure. Only problem? But she couldn't. Her ninja ranks didn't really matter to her as long as she was alive and healthy, but it wasn't about her.

If she were to fail, she would have to bring other people into her misery as well, and she sure as hell wouldn't do that. She looked discreetly around the classroom and looked for her teammates, who were each spread across the classroom.

As she searched for them, her gaze locked with one of them. The bowl-cut boy sat just a few seats to her right, and he appeared just as worried as her. Kaiya forced something that she thought to be an encouraging smile, only to see him respond with one of his usual giant smiles.

She looked back at the paper and let her head drop in her hands. In the end, her only option in order to succeed was cheating, wasn't it?

She took a grip on her pencil and took a deep breath. She _will _pass it, no matter the cost. She looked around the classroom, searching for some answers until something caught her eye.

Just a few seats ahead of her sat Tenten who, as Kaiya noticed, appeared to have some answers. Just above her play some mirror, with which Kaiya assumed that she used to help herself. _Maybe if she could just..._

Kaiya leaned a little ahead as if she was just sitting hunch over her test, thinking, while looking discreetly ahead towards the mirrors and it was at moments like this that she thanked for her sharp eyesight.

She wasn't sure if the answers were even right, but it honestly didn't matter for her, as long as the page was filling.

Her hand continued to move across the page giving various answers and, if it wasn't for the stress of being caught in the act, the given hour would've seemed longer. To make matters worse, there were a couple students caught and kicked out.

Seeing the disappointed faces on their teams couldn't help but make Kaiya gulp. What if her own team was in that position?

She shook her head. _Never._ She scribbled down a few more things before the proctor slammed his hand on the desk, making Kaiya jump a little.

'Alright.' He said solemnly. 'You've got enough time, and now it's time for the tenth question.'

Every student looked at each other worryingly, as Kaiya couldn't help but tense every muscle in her body.

'You may wonder why I put you ask the last question separately.' The proctor continued. 'You see if you fail this question, you will not only remain genin, but you'll also never be allowed to take these exams ever again.'

There were a few worried whispers.

'But, you see, ' he said in a lighter tone, ' I will also give you the option of giving up now, and take the exams again in six or seven months. Whoever wants to give up will have to fail along with their team of course. If you want to quit, please raise your hand.'

There were a few moments of silence before a boy finally raised his hand. Everyone watched how the proctor called his name and teammates' names, before having them escorted outside by the masked shinobi.

After that, a few more students raised their hands, and the procedure was repeated. A couple minutes later, more than half of the classroom was empty, having about thirty or forty students at most.

'Does anybody want to quit?' The man asked warningly.

Much to her surprise, the blonde boy right in front of her raised his hand for a moment, before slamming it onto the desk.

'I will not give up until I pass and become Hokage!' He yelled.

The proctor laughed. 'I admire your determination, if not all. However, if anybody still wants to quit, please do now. This is a choice that will affect your life. This is your last chance.'

'Never!' The blonde boy answered in determination. 'I never go back on my word. That's my ninja way!'

At first, everyone looked at him in shock, but the shock turned soon into confidence. It was clear that the boy had a positive effect upon them all. _It's like he's giving them a backbone, _Kaiya thought.

The man looked around the classroom and exchanged a look with his assistants. He nodded.

'Well done. For those of you remaining, there's only one thing left for me to tell you: That you've all passed the first exam.'

For a second, time stopped. Nobody said nothing, and it became so quiet that one pencil fell and it echoed through the room.

Kaiya narrowed her eyebrows. _They didn't even grade the papers...?_

'For those of you who have yet to figure it out,' the proctor said with a smile, 'this part of the exam was to test your skills of gaining information and, of course, how much you would risk in order to complete a challenge.'

'_Of course...' _Kaiya muttered as she closed her eyes.

'When on a mission, you will _always _have to take the risk!' He exclaimed. 'The ones who fled at the sight of risk do not deserve to be named ninja. Being a ninja _is always risky.'_

Nobody said nothing, until all of a sudden, a window breaks as someone fell on the floor. Everyone's attention turns to them only to see the woman get to her feet and scan the room mercilessly, before turning to the proctor with her eyebrows narrowed.

'Did they all pass?' She asked in confusion.

'All of them.' Ibiki confirmed.

The woman sighed as she shook her head, before looking up to the group.

'Hello, everybody. My name is Anko Mitarashi. I hope you are all ready for the second stage of the exam.'

_**A/N**_

**Hello, everybody! What's rockin'?**

**I'm sorry for the kinda late update, but I've been kinda busy lately, as I've had to figure out some things in my life and all.**

**Anyhow, here we are with chapter no. 13 of this book! I admit it was quite a bit of a challenge in writing this one since I had to check a lot on the lines in the anime and all (canon stuff and all, y'know), but we'll pull through, won't we?**

**Thanks for reading this chapter, don't forget to show me support by hitting that star button! **

**See you in the next chapter!**

**-Avery**


	14. The second stage

Kaiya stood in front of a forest along with her team and the rest of the participants. It was the first time she wore her tachi in awhile, and it was clear that it drew attention in the crowd.

She didn't really mind it, though. She was more stunned by what lay before her eyes.

In front of her stood a large forest that didn't seem the most family-friendly place to visit. It was sure to give creeps to anyone, and it showed.

Some students were shifting on their legs or talking to their teammates with tense faces; it was obvious that most students had a slight feeling of hesitation.

'Why is there a fence around it?' Tenten asked.

'Probably so we don't escape.' Kaiya assumed.

'Or maybe so whatever's in there doesn't escape.' Lee suggested.

People around them turned around to give the group an ugly look.

'What?' Tenten asked nobody in particular.

Kaiya wrinkled her nose. Anyhow, the place gave her creeps.

'Alright, i see everyone's here.' An woman with dark, spiky hair said. 'I'm Anko Mitarashi, I am your proctor for the second stage.'

'I thought that Ibiki-san was our proctor?' Kaiya whispered as her eyebrows narrowed.

'We have a different proctor for each stage.' Neji answered, not taking his eyes off Anko. 'But he's probably helping in the back as well.'

'This stage is a challenge to see the limits of your survival skills.' Anko continued, 'In this stage, there are two scrolls. The Heaven scroll and Earth scroll, to be more precise. Each team will be given one of them now, and you will have to hunt for the other one.'

Kaiya blinked a few times in surprise, before sighing in relief. That shouldn't be _too _hard, would it? After all, that's all she did her entire life; hunt, fight and flee.

'There's 78 of you. In other words, 26 teams. In order to pass,' Anko raised two scrolls, 'you must collect both scrolls and bring them to the tower in the middle, _as a team.' _

'That means... all three of us must make it.' An boy next to them said.

Kaiya looked at him and recognised him as the blonde boy who stood up to Ibiki earlier. At first, she felt glad to see him, but noticing the worry on his face couldn't help but give Kaiya a small dose of anxiety that made her cheek twitch.

The more she thought of it, the more anxiety spread across her. They were captive in a small place. They couldn't run. They couldn't escape. She looked at her teammates, who weren't in a better state than her.

'This is way harder than the first stage, isn't it?' Lee asked, sort of rhetorical.

Everyone, even outside their team, seemed to agree.

'But we'll conquer with the power of youth just like always, right, Kaiya-san?'

Kaiya felt her face heating up as all eyes were set on her.

'Ye- Yes, of course.' She answered, trying to regain her composure.

'You will be given 72 hours to gain the scrolls and get to the towers. Is it clear?' Anko asked.

Kaiya felt a small weight coming from her heart.

'Three days?' Kaiya murmurs. 'That should be enough time.'

'You think so?' Tenten asked, hesitation reading on her.

'Yeah.'

Anko called on to share the scrolls and, soon enough, each team held a scroll.

'You may enter the forest... _now.' _Anko announced.

Everyone hurried to the gates and scattered across the forest. As her heart accelerated, Kaiya followed Neji and Tenten nearly blindly as they jumped through the trees. For a second, she looked back and saw Lee, just a branch behind her. For a second, he remained behind, only for him to push himself to run at Kaiya's side.

'We can do this.' He said, between breaths.

'I'm sure we can.' Kaiya answered, giving Lee an small smile.

The morning passed by quite quietly with no particular events, and it slowly turned into afternoon.

'We should take a break.' Kaiya suggested. 'That way, we can also figure out an plan.'

The group nodded along with an _hn, _before jumping down the trees. Kaiya stood still and it wasn't until then that she realised how tired that she was.

Just a few metres away from them, an river made its way through the forest quietly. Kaiya sighed and walked to the river and kneeling down next to it. She formed a cup with her hands and took some water which she immediately let drop upon her face.

She had to admit; it was refreshing. She repeated the action a couple of times, before beginning to gulp down the water mercilessly.

She didn't realise until she was done of how weird she must've appeared in the presence of other beings all of a sudden. She wiped her mouth and turned her head slowly to her team.

They did, indeed, have a confused look on their faces, but they seemed to have their feelings under control.

'What?' She said, trying to act unbothered. 'I was thirsty and sweaty.'

Neji shook his head as if he brushed off any previous thoughts or feelings. 'Nothing.'

He walked to the river calmly and repeated Kaiya's actions; washed his face throughout and gulped down some water.

As he did so, Kaiya got to her feet only to let herself drop a few metres later at an tree. She sighed and leaned her head on the three, but the calm didn't last long.

An light rustling in the bushes set the group of four in alert. Kaiya jumped up and instinctively reached for her tachi. The others seemed to have similar reactions, as they each stood tense, ready to attack.

The bushes rustled harder and harder until someone made their way through them.

It was a rather tall, white-haired boy with glasses that gave Kaiya a familiar air.

'What do you want?' Neji demanded, gripping his kunai even harder.

The boy chuckled, pushing his glasses up his nose.

'Nothing more than the obvious.' He smirked, looking at them. 'Do you have a heaven scroll?'

Kaiya felt her muscles tensing.

'We don't have anything you need.' She growled, slightly raising her sword. 'Leave.'

The boy turned to her with an astonished look.

'You're a tough one, I see. Oh well,' he shrugged, turning away, 'I guess I'll have to take you for your word.'

Just before he could walk away, a handful kunai appeared out of nowhere, each flying towards the group of four.

Kaiya took her Tachi out and attempted dodging the kunai aimed her way. Although she did a relatively good job with it, her skills in using the sword were obviously rustled. _She needed to work out, _she thought.

After the kunai stopped coming, Kaiya swung her sword and implanted it into the ground.

'You guys alright?' She asked her team, keeping her eyes locked on the boy.

They all answered positively, something that gave Kaiya the feeling of calm for the moment.

They were surrounded by kunai, but something that made Kaiya grunt in confusion was how there was no kunai anywhere near the white-haired boy.

'There's no point in attacking us.' Kaiya said, doing her best in keeping calm, although her heart was racing. 'My teammate already told you; we have nothing you need.'

The boy tilted his head to a side, as his mouth twitched in a smile. 'So you're not as stupid as you let to see.'

'It's common sense.' Kaiya snapped. 'Now do as I say and _leave._'

The boy sighed. 'Oh well, then. I see I have no choice. I suppose I can always just get my hands on the scrolls from somewhere else.'

The group watched how the boy turned around and walked away quietly. They remained quiet before relaxing slowly as if still waiting for another attack.

Kaiya relaxed her muscles instantly and simply let out a deep sigh. 'That was close.'

'Don't you say...' Tenten mumbled, who was in no better position. 'We have to get that scroll quickly.'

'It's true.' Neji agreed.' We don't know the exact skills of the other participants in Konoha, let alone those outside, so we have less than 48 hours to collect the scrolls and get to the tower.'

'Then let's get moving.' Kaiya decided. 'The sun will set soon, but enemies don't rest, so we can't, either.'

The group seemed a little surprised at first, but nobody disagreed with Kaiya.

'She's right.' Neji said. 'We can't risk losing. Not so soon, anyway.'

'Then how about heading to the tower?' Lee suggested. 'It's more dangerous, but there's a higher chance to find the scrolls we need.'

They all nodded along with an _hn!, _before proceeding quietly and tense through the forest.

**A/N**

**Hey guys! What's up? No update for a while( sorry for that!), but here we are, with chapter 14. It's finally a crunch to read, so here you go.**

**So, about this book, I have some news for you all. ****_The Possesions of the Wild _****will end very soon (I plan ending this book after the chuunin exams), **_**but **_**there's a sequel coming after that. **

**It's going to take place through Shippuden and there'll be more character development and action than in this book.**

**Anyhow, that was it for this chapter, see you in the next one!**

**-Avery**


	15. The Scrolls

_This was a mistake., _was all Kaiya could think, as the blood pulsed through her neck like crazy.

The group of four stood still before some bushes, watching horrified how a familiar team changed completely from what they last remembered.

The two boys in the team laid down under a tree seemingly unconscious, while the pinkette stood by their side with a horrified look on her face as an unknown enemy team approached.

As Kaiya gave the girl her fair share through the thought that the enemy didn't look friendly in any way, somebody from the unknown group said something unintelligible, before attacking with kunai and shuriken of various sizes around the group.

'We have to help.' Lee murmured.

'_What?' _Kaiya spat out, trying to be as quiet as possible. 'We're going to die there!'

'Well, we can't just sit here and watch!' Lee protested. 'I promised Sakura that I'll protect her with my life, and I'm a ninja of my word.'

Kaiya grunted, unsure of the whole situation. 'Look, I don't know what promises you made to Sakura -and to be honest, I don't really care!-, but the whole situation doesn't look OK. The enemy doesn't look too easy-going, and we barely have any back-up, so jumping to fight might as well be a one-way ticket to the afterlife.'

'But he's right, you know?' Tenten said. 'It's risky, but it's not like this will change when we become chuunin. With this fight, we might get the scroll we need and get as well a positive view from Sasuke's team. One less enemy, y'know?'

Kaiya gulped down; she couldn't deny Tenten. 'Fine. So what's the plan?'

They didn't get to say anything more, as somebody from the unnamed team jumped to attack Sakura, only to be blocked by Lee, who jumped into action faster than lightning.

Everyone stopped for a second to look at the boy in surprise. The pinkette, who had her arms before her head looked up at Lee, her face taken over by shock.

'What are you doing here?' She murmured.

'I am the handsome devil of Konoha.' He announced. 'My name's Rock Lee.'

As much trouble as they were in, couldn't help but cringe a little. _Handsome devil?_ _Where'd he get __**that**__ one from?_ she thought, before getting to her feet with a sigh.

'He already made an appearance. There's no point for us hiding, is there?' She said, seeing the weird looks on her teammates' faces.

They seemed to agree, as they joined her.

'Lee, I can handle this.' Sakura tried to reason with him. 'You don't have to be here.'

'I've already told you; anytime, anywhere, I'll always be there to help if there's trouble, Sakura!' Lee assured, in what Kaiya assumed to be an attempt to look cool.

'But-' Sakura continue.

'Cut it out, Sakura.' Kaiya said as she found herself a place next to Lee, putting a grip on her kunai. 'He's a ninja of his word, right Lee?'

Sakura's eyes widened at her sight as a large beam made itself present on Lee's face. 'Believe it!'

Even with all the danger floating around them, Kaiya smirked- just a small pouting of lips and a tilt of the head. 'Then let's finish them, shall we?'

Lee nodded, and, just as he was about to attack, a bandaged member of the enemy team told his teammates something about who attacks who, before approaching Lee faster than expected.

A knot made itself present in Kaiya's stomach as she fixed her eyes to where the bandaged boy was and threw her kunai in his direction.

The timing was perfect as, as soon as it passed the enemy, a sprinkle of blood escaped from his ear, making the boy lose focus for a second.

A few kicks later, the bandaged boy jumped back beside his team.

'Zaku... We have no other choice.' The bandaged boy said in a gruffly, dead-like voice as he handed a scroll to his teammate, 'I'll leave you Sasuke, and I'll kill these three.'

_Was that an earth scroll?, _Kaiya thought, _Just what we need! _Although seemingly shocked, the boy named Zaku nodded in understanding.

'Looks like we're going to have some fun.' The bandaged boy said as he raised one of his arms, only to reveal a large piece of metal full of holes.

Kaiya narrowed her eyebrows but didn't get the chance to reflect on what that devilish machine could be, as the boy ran up to them, preparing to attack.

As soon as she realised his plan, Kaiya jumped a couple of meters into the air and aimed a few shurikens towards him. Meanwhile, Sakura threw a kunai and Lee pulled out the hugest tree root possible out the ground.

'How'd you do that?' Kaiya asked as she landed back on the ground.

'I'll explain.' Lee answered quickly, before drawing his attention back to the enemy. 'Your attack has some sort of trick, doesn't it? I won't dodge it in a normal way. I saw your move before.'

Lee shot the enemy group one more look, before looking at his arms, and beginning to unfold the bandages around them as he mumbled something.

For a second, Kaiya breathed in sharply in recognition of the move

'Lee, ' she said, trying to sound rational. 'You don't plan to...'

He looked up and looked straight in her eyes for a second. 'I promised Sakura that I'll protect her with my life. You remember what Guy-sensei said about this technique, right?'

'To use the technique only for the ones you care about.' Kaiya answered with a slight tent of hesitation.

'Exactly.' Lee said calmly. 'I care about Sakura and I promised her something, so now I'll have to do my best in keeping it!'

The bandaged boy jumped into the air, followed quickly by Lee.

'You're finished now!' Lee exclaimed as he took the bandages from his arms off, before putting them around the boy and spinning towards the ground at lightning speed.

Kaiya blinked a few times, trying to block the dust from entering her eyes and searched for Lee anxiously from where she stood, only to see him jump over the dust cloud a few moments later.

He landed next to Kaiya, without taking his eyes off the opponent. The bandaged boy now stood upside down in a ball of mud, but didn't hesitate much and freed himself quickly.

'Nice one, Lee!' Kaiya said, taking advantage of the moment and retrieving her kunai.

'Now it's my turn.' The bandaged boy said, revealing his metal arm.

_This isn't good, _Kaiya thought. Lee was in an already bad state, it was the first time she saw such techniques, and Tenten and Neji were nowhere to be found. If she was to take complete action and push her buttons, then...

She shook her head. She _had _to help, and if they were to ask questions, she would have to answer them. Whatever happened, happened.

The bandaged boy uncovered his metal arm and aimed at Lee, who successfully dodged his fist. At first, everything seemed fine, but it immediately became clear that it wasn't so.

'Your moves are indeed fast.' The bandaged boy said, 'But our moves work at the speed of sound, and exceed yours.'

Lee lost his balance and knelt down, breathing heavily.

'I will teach you that there is a wall that you can't get past by just hard work.' The bandaged boy said.

Kaiya couldn't help but growl. She had the luck to be born in a rather strong family, but Lee still stood the chance to beat her. _And all because of his hard work, _she thought.

'Hey, you mummy!' She yelled.

'Hm?' He grunted in response. 'What do you want?'

'I would recommend you leave before its too late!' She said, warningly. 'Please acknowledge the fact that you have to do with capable shinobi; after all, I bet not many could resist so well to your techniques.'

'_Hmpf, ' _he puffed, half amused and half disgusted. 'as if! Just look at your friend.'

Kaiya shot a look at Lee, only to notice horrified that droplets of blood began lingering from his ear.

'My left ear...' He murmured as he covered his wounded ear.

'There's a little trick in my attack, you see.' The bandaged boy said, showing off his metal arm. 'Just dodging it won't help.'

'I think everyone noticed by now...' Kaiya mumbled, her cheek twitching.

'You see, the trick is very simple;' he continued, unbothered. 'it's sound. You may have dodged my fist, but the sound still attacked you.'

Kaiya couldn't help but block for a second. _Sound? _But she didn't hear anything, yet Lee was on his knees, with one ear-bleeding! And as sure as hell he wasn't weak. How that should be possible, Kaiya couldn't understand. For one thing, everyone appeared as confused and shocked as her.

'Do you know what kind of sound this is?'

'Vibrations, aren't they?' Sakura said, from behind them.

For a second, hearing her voice make Kaiya jump a little. Since the pinkette didn't say nor did anything before that, Kaiya seemed to forget she was there, watching the fight.

'Correct.' The bandaged boy answered with a nod. 'Being able to hear something, means that your eardrums catch the vibrations in the air. And the human eardrums will basically shatter at anything above 150 decibels. Also, by adding a shock to the semicircular canals, the enemy will lose their sense of balance.'

_Well, that explains would explain it, _Kaiya thought. He was really good at explaining his moves, for an enemy. She looked at Lee, who grunted in pain.

'Don't worry, Lee.' She said. 'I'll take care of them now.'

He shot her a confused look. 'But-'

'It's alright, you did enough. Now it's my turn.'

The bandaged boy laughed.

'I'm afraid she _will _have to deal with us on her own! You won't be able to move your body well for a while.' He told Lee. 'Your outdated hand-to-hand combat won't work on us, as you just saw.'

Kaiya clenched her teeth. _Fair enough._

'It was effective for a while, ' the other boy admitted. 'but I already showed you my techniques. So it's not going to work as smoothly as you thought.'

Just as he said that the boy stood up on his toes. 'I can control supersonic vibes and air pressure. I could destroy even a rock. I can send air into the ground and make it a cushion. It _is _different from your dumb moves.'

The boy opened his hands, only to show a hole on each of his palms through which air rushed out at an alarming rate.

'You're next!' The bandaged bit announced, before rushing towards Sakura, who prepared a kunai for the impact.

'Sakura!' Lee exclaimed, getting on his feet and making his way towards the girl.

_Goddamit, Lee! Stop pushing yourself!, _Kaiya thought, sprinting to the place of impact as fast as possible.

The bandaged boy aimed a hit towards Sakura, but failed; Lee's dodge was a success.

'Good one, you fooled me with this one.' The bandaged boy admitted.

He attacked again but this time, his hit was accompanied the supersonic sound. Lee dodged the punch again, but this time, he wasn't on his own.

Just as the sound came out the metallic arm, Kaiya managed to land on the arm and push in down. The only problem? The sound.

The bandaged boy must've seen her move coming, but knowing his powers, he didn't worry about how to dodge the girl.

As soon as the sound came out, Kaiya's muscles stiffened and refused to move any further, letting her fall down with an excruciating headache.

'This arm amplifies the sound to the maximum, just like a speaker!' The bandaged boy said, sounding somewhat pleased with the results of his attack. 'But the sound isn't stuck to the direction of the sound, y'see. I can use my chakra and follow it as it hits the enemy!'

With the corner of her eye, Kaiya noticed how, just as he said that, Lee's feet numbed and let his body drop to the ground as well, as weakened as he could be.

The bandaged boy mumbled something about finishing the two and just as he prepared in doing so, something distracted him.

'I won't let you to!' The pinkette Kaiya recognised as Sakura said, as some kunai made themselves visible from her hands.

Sakura threw the kunai towards the boy with perfect aim, only to be dodged by the metal arm like it was no big deal. At the sight of it, Kaiya couldn't help but frown a little.

'Geez.' The bandaged boy sighed, looking at Sakura from behind his shield.

Sakura shook her head. _She isn't giving up just yet, is she?, _Kaiya thought. Even if they weren't on the same team, Kaiya would've gladly helped Sakura, but taking her current state, she would've been just another burden for the girl.

'I... I can fight too!' Sakura exclaimed, as she threw a handful of kunai towards the boy, this time not to be dodged by him, but one of his teammates who fought with them just earlier.

The other boy opened his palms only to show two holes in the middle, through which air escaped at amazing speed, pushing the kunai away from him and the bandaged boy, nearly hitting Sakura.

Before she could do any other move, Sakura was immobilized to the ground by a dark-haired girl who held her tightly by her hair.

'Your hair's softer and glossier than mine.' The dark-haired girl murmured with a smug on her face. 'Perhaps, if you would've used that time you used in shampooing for training, you would've been in a better position now. What, are you trying to look pretty? Zaku, kill that Sasuke in front of this pig!'

The boy named Zaku seemed to like the idea and nearly followed the orders if it wasn't for the bandaged boy.

'Hey, guys...' The bandaged boy mumbled.

'Don't move!' The dark-haires girl yelled as Sakura attempted to escape.

Lee turned his head shakingly towards Sakura, and Kaiya knew exactly what he was thinking.

Tears began rolling down on Sakura's cheeks as her arms began tremblings. _Come on, not now!, _was all Kaiya could think at the moment.

'Sa... Sakura...' Kaiya said as quietly as possible, but it seemed to catch Sakura's attention.

For a second, they made eye contact, but it was enough for Sakura to understand what Kaiya wanted to say. _Please._

'Come on, let's do this.' Zaku said, after a few moments of silence.

He slowly made his way towards the two boys from Sakura's team and, just before he could reach them, Sakura drew out a kunai.

'There's no point with that.' The girl who held her warned. 'That won't work on me.'

Hearing those words, Sakura couldn't help but smirk as she turned her head around to face the girl. 'What are you talking about?'

The enemy girl was obviously taken aback by those words. 'What?'

Just before she could do anything to counter, Sakura let her kunai cut through her hair, right under the other girl's hand.

The other girl took a few steps back, only to give the girl the chance to stand up and begin to form some seals. Kaiya squinted her eyes in recognition when seeing the seals.

'Kin, kill her!' The boy named Zaku ordered, without losing any time to form some seals himself.

The enemy girl nodded before pulling something from her bag and attacking Sakura, only to realise that she attacked a log.

'A replacement technique?' The girl said.

'She's to the right.' Zaku announced as he kept his hands ahead.

Just as he turned around, Sakura was running towards him, with a handful of kunai in each hand.

'Kin, stay back!' He yelled as he prepared for the attack.

Sakura threw her kunai, only for him to repel them back towards her with air pressure. Just as the kunai should hit her, her body was replaced by another log. This time, the enemy wasn't surprised at all.

'So obvious... She's above.' He mumbled.

'I'm telling you, it's not going to work more than two or three times.' He said as Sakura began forming some scrolls. 'This is good enough for you!'

Kaiya tried to watch what happened, but after that sound attack she got earlier, her head got heavier by the second until she couldn't move it at all. The heaviness moved itself to her face and eyelids, making sure that Kaiya's consciousness didn't remain untouched.

For some time, it was dark and quiet. Kaiya didn't feel no more, knew no more what happened around her and for some reason, she didn't really care at the moment.

It was quiet, and ever since she got to Konoha- no, ever since her brother died, she didn't get the chance to recollect much. Everything went so fast, she didn't know what to do but to roll with whatever happened.

'Are you alright?' A voice asked, startling Kaiya.

'Who's... Who's there?' Kaiya asked, still feeling numb.

'That's not important.' The voice answered, in a now aggravated tone. 'But what _is _important is that your friends are out there and they need your help. You can't just let them die, now can you?'

Just as she wanted to say that she didn't have that type of relationships, she came to a realisation. Tenten, Neji and Lee... they could be considered friends of hers, couldn't they? Even Guy-sensei, too...

'I don't know if I can do much, though. I'm out of conciousness.'

'Yes, that's true, but you can't stay like that forever. You still have a chance to save them, I'm sure of that. Won't you try to push yourself to the last of your limits to protect your friends? I'm sure they put their trust in you more than they show.'

For a moment, she fell silent. Tenten and Neji, well, if they had the luck, they would still stand somewhere hidden, without a scratch, but Lee... well, he was still there. He had way more injuries than needed and, if they weren't treated, well, he would be just as good as dead. _I bet that that bandaged boy and his team won't be nice enough to treat his wounds., _Kaiya thought.

Whoever was talking to her _did _have a point. She had to save Lee. With no one else on their side now, it was like her responsibility to protect him.

'You're right.' Kaiya said, after a long pause. 'They... they took care of me and gave me shelter. Now it's time for me to repay them.'

'Well, you better do that before it's too late.'

As she forced herself to come to her senses, her body feeling tired and numb. She couldn't let herself be stopped by it_. Pain goes away, eventually. Death doesn't_. She collected all the remaining energy in her body and it didn't take long before she fully came back to her senses.

She opened her eyes and, after a few blinks, noticed how she was in the same spot she remembered, and so was Lee. But this time, there was something weird in the air. It felt tenser and... the field was quieter than when she passed out.

'Say, Sakura, who hurt you?' a rather dead-sounding voice asked.

Kaiya moved her head a little, only to notice a dark-haired boy with black marks all over his face and arms, along with something Kaiya assumed to be purple chakra all around his body. She attempted sitting up on her knees and succeded, but she still needed to sustain herself with her hands.

As if he didn't feel the danger, Zaku smirked with confidence as he tilted his head to aside. 'I did!'

The boy's eyes locked it immediately on Zaku. He turned around without even blinking as the black marks on his body turned into a red-ish colour, like some sort of horrible burn or wound, before returning back to their dark colour.

Kaiya couldn't help but squint her eyes a little. What _was _he? She wasn't sure, but she knew for a fact that she wouldn't want to have anything to do with him.

'This is too much for us...!' Dosu said, with a trembling voice.

'Dosu, don't be scared of the guy! He's already halfway dead!' Zaku yelled as he readied his hands for some seals.

'No, Zaku, stop!' The bandaged boy now yelled in horror. 'Don't you understand?!'

'I'll finish this in a flash!' Zaku yelled back still confident as ever as he stretched his arms out for an attack. 'Maximum air cutter!'

As he said that, a massive amount of air came out from his hands at an amazing speed. Luckily for Kaiya, she laid out the air's range of attack, so the attack didn't affect her much, other than giving her back a light headache.

The attack didn't last long; in a second or two, it was already done. But the impact was on a different scale. There was digging in the ground leading from Zaku to where the dark-haired boy should stand.

Seeing the effects that the attack had, Kaiya was tempted to get herself and Lee out of the battlefield, but something stopped her.

'They're finished!' Zaku exclaimed. 'This attack cut them to pieces.'

'Who was, exactly, cut in pieces?' A now familiar voice asked.

The boy was clearly shocked when realising that they survived, but his shock was even greater when he realised that the boy and his team was now located just behind him.

With a single punch, Zaku was thrown away to the other side of the field, now close to the bandaged boy.

'Zaku!' The bandaged boy exclaimed.

The tattooed boy aimed with a fire jutsu, to which Zaku responded with his usual air pressure dodge. Just as the fire was about to hit him, the fireballs transformed into shuriken. It was enough to distract the boy, as the next thing he knew, the tattooed boy was, yet again, behind him, but this time immobilising his arms as he put a foot on his back.

'You seem really proud of your arms.' The tattooed boy said, with a chuckle, before pushing Zaku's back with his leg.

As he pushed the boy's back, a loud _crack!_ along with a blood-curling scream from Zaku sent a shrivel through Kaiya's spine.

The look on the tattooed boy's face as he turned around didn't make it any better. His eyes were now red and that would've probably been not such a big of a deal if the way they made contact with everyone around would've not been so... chaotic and fierce.

'That leaves just you, now.' He said, locking gazes with the bandaged boy.

Hearing his words, the bandaged boy began shaking uncontrollably.

The tattoed boy took a step towards the boy, then another, and another. Slowly but surely, the boy made his way towards the bandaged boy, who froze in his spot, staring at his enemy, horrified.

As he slowly made his way towards the bandaged boy, a pair of arms tugged around him, stopping him from walking any further.

'Stop!' Sakura pleaded through sobs as she held onto Sasuke. 'Please... stop.'

Sasuke turned his head around and, for reasons Kaiya couldn't exactly understand, something in Sakura's eyes had an effect on him.

He didn't attempt going anymore forward, and the marks on his body slowly faded, before his body collapsed on the floor.

Turning around, Kaiya noticed how the bandaged boy took out two scrolls and put them on the ground.

'Let's make a deal.' He said as he got up and reached for Zaku, who was out of consciousness. 'Please let us leave for now. We might be asking for much, but we have something to confirm.'

Everyone watched quietly how the bandaged boy walked away, carrying his teammate.

Seeing him gone, Kaiya felt a little less anxious, yet worried that the tattooed boy might turn to attack her. But, once she saw him and his state, she was sure that he wouldn't really be up for yet another battle right now.

She took a look at Lee, and noticed how he was still out of consciousness. She shook her head; she'll take care of him later.

She got up to her feet and, with a little bit of effort, she made her way to the scrolls, and noticed that those were different scrolls, including the one that she and her team needed. _Bingo!_

_'_Which scroll do you guys need?' She asked, looking at the group.

'Um... The Earth scroll.' Sakura answered, a little surprised by the sudden question. 'What about you?'

'So you need the Earth scroll?'Kaiya frowned for a second, before smiling, pleased. 'Then it's perfect! My team and I need the Heaven scroll. Here, catch it!'

Kaiya threw the earth scroll to Sakura, who caught it successfully.

'Thanks... I guess.' Sakura thanked, while couldn't help but feel a little awkward as she watched how the girl then took the other scroll, before returning to check on Lee.

She only had talked to Kaiya, maybe, once, yet she couldn't brush off the odd vibe that the girl gave. She wasn't stupid; rather the opposite. But what Sakura found odd was how she could be cold and yet not so cold towards people at the same time. _Weird, _she thought. At first, she considered asking her about it but eventually dropped the idea.

If the right moment came, she might as well as her. But for now, she had to take care of Sasuke and Naruto and make sure that they all made it safely to the end of the exams.

**Hey, people!**

**No update in a long time... I know. Believe, I know. It's a really chaotic time right now for me due to school and the fact that I have many books to judge in the Majestic Inc. I hope you guys can understand.**

**On a lighter note, I made this chapter extra long, with 4250 words, and I hoped you guys liked this chapter. What did you think of it, anyway? **

**Let me know in the comments!**


	16. Finishing up

'Where _were _you, guys?' Kaiya asked, doing her best to not yell too loudly. 'We nearly died there!'

The group of four now sat somewhere in the woods, at a distance from the battlefield.

Kaiya looked at Tenten and Neji with somewhat disappointment, before shooting Lee a look, wh laid next to a tree, still unconscious. 'Well, _he _could've died there.'

Neji and Tenten, although still unharmed, weren't really defensive about the situation either. While Neji preferred to keep quiet while holding on to his usual serious tone, Tenten's face now reached a rather pink tone to itself.

'Well, we didn't think it was going to be so bad!' Tenten tried to explain. 'We remained where we stood before you and Lee went out to fight, but another group appeared soon after in the bushes very close to us, and we didn't want to get into any unnecessary fight.'

Neji snorted. 'Why did you two have to go there and fight, anyway? I don't really see the point in it.'

'Lee swore to protect that girl with pink hair, Sakura some time ago, before the first stage, remember? I guess we all know how Lee is when it comes to that kind of stuff.'

'Well, Lee is Lee, we know that for sure. But why did _you _go? I hope you didn't do any sort of silly promises-' Neji began slightly mockingly, only to be interrupted.

'Matter of fact, I did not.' Kaiya snapped. 'But I did what was only natural to do, and I did not leave my comrade to die in a painful, lonely death, only so I can be safe. Even that, for a temporary amount of time.'

Neji pursed his lips with a sigh, as Tenten avoided eye-contact.

'_Now,_' Kaiya sighed, as she walked over to Lee to pick him up and carry him. 'I also managed to get the heaven scroll through some rather lucky circumstances, so we should get moving before it's too late.'

The two obeyed without any further question and, before they knew it, the group was moving, slowly but surely through the forest. As Kaiya was walking alongside her group, she thought she felt Lee move slightly as his breathing changed. _He's recovering., _she thought. Well, she wasn't wrong.

'Th... Thank you, Kaiya-san.' Lee murmured, unsure if the girl heard him.

What he had yet to learn was how Kaiya had, even though not as good as some of her peers, a pretty good pair of ears.

Hearing his comment, she couldn't help but smile a little to herself. She must've done the right thing now, right? And if they didn't trust her until then, this _had _to prove something to them.

If it was under other circumstances, she would've probably not cared so much for if they accepted her or not as a newcomer, but if there was something she had learned since her arrival in Konoha was that in the ninja world, the comradery was probably one of the most important things.

At that point, something clicked in her head. She was probably seen as an outsider; which of course she was. But she _will _prove herself to be just as strong as any native Konoha ninja. And this demanded that she'd have to fight double as much, and for nobody but herself. _It isn't much of a price, _she thought. She _will _work as much as necessary and she _was _worthy of being seen as an equal... wasn't she?

'We have to get to that red tower, correct?' She asked, with some confidence building within her.

'That is correct.' Neji confirmed, briefly.

'We've been walking for a while now and that tower doesn't seem that far away.' Tenten opened up. 'Shouldn't we already be there or something?'

Kaiya frowned; the girl had a point.

'Well, we _are _close to the tower, so you should expect some attacks from the shadows.' Neji stated. 'If we weren't paying attention enough before, we might as well be in a genjutsu by now.'

'Hm, possible.' Kaiya considered. 'Wouldn't that mean that we could be walking in circles right now?'

'You got it. It would be much easier to solve this if we knew what kind of genjutsu this is, but since we know absolutely nothing about the caster of genjutsu itself, then the possibilities are infinite.' Neji explained. 'And we absolutely _don't _have that time.'

'So what do we do?' Kaiya asked, her mind lacking resolves.

'I'll tell you how we do.' A sudden third voice said. 'Give me the scrolls and I let you leave.'

The three turned their heads around to see a fairly tall, tanned boy with a headband that didn't, for sure, display his loyalty to Konoha. At his sight, Kaiya put her hand on her tachi in an instant, ready to defend at any moment.

'Where's he from?' Tenten murmured.

'Sand village, I think.' Kaiya answered, looking at his headband.

'Correct.' The boy said with a pleased smirk, before raising his hand. 'Well, now, won't you share your achievements with a fellow shinobi?'

Kaiya's face wrinkled in disgust. 'Neji, please take Lee somewhere safe. Tenten and I will take care of this.'

Neji nodded in agreement. In the state that Lee was at that moment, he would've been nothing but a burden. He took the boy off Kaiya's shoulders before disappearing with him in the woods.

For a second, Kaiya felt how Tenten looked at her worryingly.

'Don't worry,' Kaiya told her, ' if we managed to get so far in the exams, we'll be able to get past this one, too.'

The boy snorted.

'_As if I'm some sort of obstacle._' He mumbled. 'Look, I don't want to fight. I'm just as tired as you two are. Just give me the scrolls and-'

He didn't get to say anything else, as if he attempted to, he would've been cut in half by a tachi sword. He took out a kunai and protected himself just in time. Sadly for him, Kaiya didn't refuse to let go and continued to push resistance through the boy's kunai.

'A swordswoman, eh?' He asked. 'You don't really see one that often in my village. We focus more on chakra control, y'see.'

'I know that.' Kaiya answered simply, as she pushed the boy's kunai out of his hand before jumping a few meters back, giving Tenten space to attack.

'Tenten, now!' She called out.

'I'm on it!' Tenten answered as she took a long scroll out from her bag.

It was clearly a unique scroll she brought herself and not the ones they needed to protect, but she couldn't help but feel confused. She had noticed how Tenten had a preference for weapons, but she never really saw her put a particular interest in scrolls until then. Before she could get to put more thought in it, Tenten activated the scroll out of which emerged tens of various weapons, which after some hand signs, aimed at the boy, who grabbed his kunai back and did his best to dodge as many as possible.

'Quite impressive, ain't it?' Tenten said, without taking her eyes off the attack. 'I saw this in a shop and I knew I _had _to get it.'

It was, indeed, impressive, in Kaiya's opinion. As she watched Tenten's attack, a presence appeared suddenly next to Kaiya.

She spun her head around to see, much to her relief, that it was Neji. For a second, she felt relieved, but the relief turned immediately into slight worry.

'You left Lee alone?' She asked. 'What if someone attacks him? He's unconscious, for god's sake!'

'Relax. I didn't place him too far away so if something happens, we'll reach to him immediately. Besides, I activated my Byakugan, 'he pointed calmly at his eyes, whose veins were now greatly enlarged. 'and I can still see his chakra. If I notice something suspicious, I'll let you know.'

'Ok.' She said.

She was still not so sure how Neji's Kekkei Genkai worked, but anyhow, it seemed to be quite useful.

The boy from the Sand village eventually dodged all of the weapons aimed at him and was still standing, with a few scratches here and there.

'We don't have much time left. 'Neji said, as he prepared his hands for some hands signs. 'Let me finish this quickly.'

'Eight trigrams and sixty-four palms?' Tenten guessed.

Neji nodded.

'No.' Kaiya said just as Neji was about to form the necessary hand signs, only to get some questioning looks. 'That uses a lot of chakra, doesn't it? You're tired, and we don't need another man down.'

At first, Neji hesitated. Who was _she _thinking she knew best?

'If my fate is to die here, so be it.' He answered, without lowering his hands.

'I'm sure your fate will keep you alive a little longer, so don't push it.' Kaiya retored.

Neji shot Kaiya a look before lowering his hands. Just as Kaiya believed that she convinced him, he jumped at the Sand Village boy, attacking him with fast, various hits without giving the boy the chance to defend.

'Wow, you really _are _something, Kaiya.' Tenten commented.

'What do you mean?' Kaiya asked, slightly absently.

_'Well, you know Neji- slightly stubborn and always talking about_ _fate _and how it can't be changed. When he started talking about it earlier, I thought that that would be the definitive answer, y'know. With two boys physically weakened to the core at the last hundred of meters. But, weirdly enough... he listened to you.'

'Well, I hope it's because he understood and agreed with my reasoning.'

Just as they were to say something else, Neji landed back next to them.

'We should leave now.' He said. 'The Sunakagure boy is out of consciousness.'

Kaiya looked back and noticed how the boy laid, indeed, unconscious on the ground, with a red liquid dripping from his forehead. Kaiya shook her head. _He'll be fine, won't he?_

Neji led the two girls in the forest where they recuperated Lee, before continuing their way to the tower. This time, the group managed to reach the tower successfully, in nearly no time at all.

By now, Lee had recovered somewhat as he regained consciousness and could walk, still numb. As they entered and made their way through the tower, the group caught him up to what happened while he was out of consciousness.

'So... we have both scrolls now?' He asked no one in particular.

'Correct.' Kaiya answered. 'That bandaged boy gave a really generous offer in order to live, and Sakura's team already had the Heaven scroll, so... it's a win-win, I guess.'

'Is Sakura alright?' Lee asked as soon as Kaiya was done with talking, his eyes jolting wide open.

'I suppose she should be fine.' Kaiya shrugged. 'Before I l left, she was still in a relatively good state. After all, you _did _manage to protect her, didn't you?'

Lee couldn't help but smile. 'And I would do it again any time!'

Just as he said that, they arrived in a large, empty room, with something written on a wall.

'What's that?' Kaiya asked pointing to the writing.

'I'm not quite sure, it looks like sort of riddle.' Tenten guessed, just as confused as Kaiya.

'If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher.' Neji read aloud. 'If Earth qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are opened together, the perilous path with be righteous forever. This something is the secret way that guides us from this place today.'

'It's like it's missing something, but I'm not sure what.' Tenten thought aloud.

'Should we open the scrolls, perhaps?' Kaiya suggested. 'It says _When earth and heaven are opened together,_ maybe that's what they mean.'

Nobody really seemed to argue. Kaiya took the scrolls and took a breath. She wasn't sure what the scrolls should contain, but it did seem to be the only correct way to success.

She handed one to Tenten and, just as they opened them, a cloud of smoke made itself present through the scrolls.

'Get away from the scrolls, _now!'_ Neji yelled, urgently._ '_It's a summoning jutsu!'

The two girls dropped the scrolls immediately and backed away as quickly as possible, only to notice a slightly familiar face through the smoke.

An average-height man in ordinary shinobi clothes with brown hair in a high ponytail and a scar over his nose took a step out of the smoke, along with a truly impressed look.

'Wow, your skills really improved since I last saw you all!' He said, before frowning slightly in confusion as he looked at Kaiya. 'Well... almost everyone.'

'Iruka-sensei, she's Kaiya.' Tenten informed. 'She wasn't with us in the academy, since she became a Konoha shinobi not that long ago.'

'Really?' The man named Iruka asked, curiously. 'I think I've heard something about it.'

Kaiya avoided making eye-contact, unsure what to say. He probably heard something. And that _something _probably wasn't something positive.

'I don't know, maybe.' Tenten continued. 'She may not look like it, but she's awesome, really! She's smart and nice... She even knows how to hunt wild animals! While we were on a mission, she hunted a deer down for us to eat for dinner!'

'Oh, yeah! That was really cool. But she also knows how to fight very well!' Lee added. 'She even beat me a few times in training, and in the exams now, she has some most youthful techniques!'

As the two told him all that, Iruka's frown turned into a small, sincere smile that his students knew only too well.

'Now did you really?' He said, pleased. 'Well, you definitely have good qualities for a shinobi career. But I'm afraid we aren't here to discuss things on that matter. Not right now, anyway.'

He turned to look at the entire group.

'Now, let's get to the real business. You've finished the second stage, and I must congratulate you all. I know from experience, this is, probably the most difficult part of the exam. But don't rest easy- the final part won't be much easier. The point of this exam was, basically, to see if you manage to go through the exam without opening the scrolls.'

'They were summoning scrolls.' Neji stated. 'What would've happened if we opened them, say, in the middle of the exams?'

'Very sharp of you, Neji!' Iruka complimented. 'If that would've happened, well, me and the other instructors would've had to knock you and your group out... Some groups had to find it out the hard way.'

There were a few knicks from the group.

'Well, it looks like it's time for you to go to the third stage.' Iruka sighed. 'The third and Anko-san will give you more information on that. Are you all ready?'

The group responded positively in unison, with a _hn. _

_'_Great! Well, good luck with your exam!' Iruka said, before disappearing in another cloud of smoke.

Some minutes later, they were all in another large room, this one with a balcony on the left and right sight of it, and some stairs through the wall.

They were aligned one before the other by group along with a few other groups out of which Kaiya could now make some familiar faces.

In front of them, The Third Hokage stood straight, holding his pipe, as usual. Behind him stood a few jonins shinobi, through which Kaiya noticed Guy-sensei, too. _They must be all teachers from the Konoha groups, _she thought.

Next to him, their proctor for the second stage, Anko, stood straight, with a serious face.

'First of all, congratulations on passing the second stage!' Anko said, her voice echoing clear through the entire room.

'Everyone's here; all the rookies passed.' Tenten whispered, nervously.

'_What?_' Kaiya snapped, keeping her voice low. 'If everyone's here... I don't have a good feeling about this.'

If everyone was there, it meant that they must've had some strengths that Kaiya didn't foresee, and she wasn't really the one to underestimate things. If they all passed, they'd have to be double as vigilant, who knew what they all were capable of.

'Alright, now pay attention!' Anko raised her voice, making a few people shrink for a second. 'Lord Hokage will explain the third stage, and you better listen carefully maggots. Lord Hokage, they're all yours.'

The Hokage nodded as he took a step forward and cleared his throat.

'Before I start to explain what the exam entails, I want to explain something about the test itself.' He said. 'Please listen closely, as it is something you all need to understand; I'm going to tell you the true purpose of this exam. Why do you think that our country holds these exams together with our allies? In order to raise the abilities of shinobi and friendships between allied nations, yes... but not only that. The exams are, so to speak, a representation of the battle of the allied nation.'

He continued to explain in more detail about the history of the allied nations, but around this time, Kaiya didn't pay as much attention. She wanted to know exactly what was coming and what she needed to do.

'Then why do we go to fight? It's not like we're picking Chuunin to go fight!' The blonde boy from Sakura's team commented as the Hokage finished.

The Hokage explained, on short, how the exams were meant to choose who was worthy of becoming a chuunin.

'Then why do we risk our lives for it?' A familiar voice asked.

She searched him with her eyes and, for a second, she thought they had made eye-contact.

'The country strength is village strength. And the village's strength is a shinobi's strength. A shinobi's true strength won't be fully achieved until it's pushed on the verge between life and death.' The Hokage explained.

He went on explaining some things about the exams, until a man who seemed sick due to his constant coughing went next to the Hokage.

'There's something I need you all to do. Due to the number of people passing the second exam being larger than calculated, we need to go through a preliminary exam to reduce the participants to half of the current number. The ones who'll pass to the final part of the exam will be determined through a one versus one combat. If any of you do not feel in the necessary physical condition, now's the moment to retreat.'

Murmurs spread across the room as each team consulted.

'You guys alright?' Kaiya asked, turning to her team.

They all answered positively, although nervousness could be noticed easily in their voices and expressions.

'You know... it's alright if we skip the exams this year.' Kaiya tried to lighten the mood. 'It's not that big of a deal.'

Tenten, Lee and Neji looked at each other hesitantly. They already skipped the exams once and were more experienced, whilst Kaiya was still a rookie. It _was _a little unfair towards her, but she really did seem like she handled things well, especially hand-to-hand combat.

'It's okay. We can do this.' Tenten said eventually, looking down. 'Please look ahead of you, Kaiya.'

Kaiya obliged, without thinking much of it. Looking around, she noticed how a boy with relatively short, silver hair caught in a ponytail raised his hand, later followed by a few other people, each and one of them escorted outside along with their respective teams, after their names were called.

'Alright. Does anybody else want to quit? This is your last chance!' The man warned.

Seeing that nobody raised their hand, he allowed a cough as he looked over a list in his hand.

'Alright... There's 23 of you, and there will be 12 combat matches. That means someone will get the chance to get into the final exams twice. In combat, there are no rules. The two may fight until one drops dead, is physically incapable to continue or the fight is hopeless and there is a clear winner. As the proctor, I will do my best to save as many lives as possible.'

Just as he said that two panels Kaiya didn't notice until then were cleared as two names appeared. _Sasuke Uchiha vs._ _Yoroi Akado. _

'The two chosen, please come ahead.' The man said.

Kaiya noticed how the dark-haired boy from Sakura's team came ahead, along with a boy she didn't recognise.

'Those not chosen, please clear the area by going to the upper area.' The proctor instructed everyone, before turning to the two boys. 'Are there any objections?'

'No.' The two boys answered in unison.

'Then, when you're ready, you may begin.' The proctor said, taking a few steps back.

'He was supposed to be _my _rival.' Lee mumbled as they prepared for the fight.

'Sasuke?' Kaiya asked.

Lee nodded.

'Perhaps in the finals, then.' She tried to cheer him up. 'Even after that, if you want to.'

**_A/N_**

**Heyyo, everyone! How are y'all? It seems that I posted this earlier and longer than planned. In the next chapter, I smell a good fight between Kaiya and somebody you guys have yet to find out aaand some tea will get spilled about Kaiya!**

**_Boom! _****2 in one, just like that.**

**Anything else to say...? ****_*checks notes nervously* _****Yes, actually!**

**I plan ending this book somewhere right after Orochimaru's attack, but weep not- there ****_will _****be a second book! What do you guys think about that?**

**Also, while we're still on the topic: What do you guys think of this chapter? Was it too long, too short, enough action? **

**Let me know in the comments!**

**-Avery**


	17. Family Busniess

There were quite a few fights that passed by, but Kaiya had yet to go.

'I _still _can't believe I lost so easily to her!' Tenten puffed her cheeks. 'My weapons didn't get even _close _to her.'

She had just returned from her fight against a girl from the sand Village, but lost very quickly, without being able to put up a fight. Kaiya sighed.

'Well, whatever happened has happened. You can't change that.' Kaiya shrugged.

'You sound a bit like Neji right now.' Tenten laughed.

'Cut it off.' Neji said, bored, as Kaiya snorted in amusement.

The two pannels changed as two different names appeared. _Kiba Inuzuka vs. Naruto Uzumaki. _Kaiya's eyes widened a bit in interes as she leaned over a bit.

'This will be... interesting.' She mumbled much to herself.

'I'm curious about how Naruto evolved.' Tenten said. 'Last time I saw him, he was much of the same idiot as always.'

'Naruto?' Kaiya furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

'Yeah, the blonde boy in Sakura's team. You must've saw him before, for sure.'

It didn't take much for Kaiya to think. She remembered seeing him around a couple of times, but he was never really an outstanding presence. Not for what she saw, anyway. But she couldn't really care less for who he was. At the moment, something else caught her attention.

'The seventh battle. Naruto Uzumaki versus Kiba Inuzuka.' The proctor announced.

'I'm sick of waiting! It's finally my time to shine! Believe it.' Naruto exclaimed, obviously eager for the battle.

The other boy, Kiba, prepared for the upcoming attack as his puppy jumped next to him, ready for defense.

'Hey, don't bring your puppy!' Naruto said. 'He'll get into the way!'

'Akamaru will fight alongside me.' Kiba announced.

As if to agree with his owner, Akamaru barked. _Akamaru, huh?, _Kaiya thought, raising an eyebrow. _What an an ironic name._

'There's no problem with it.' The Proctor said, calm. 'Ninkens are allowed.'

'It's fine, I got this.' Kiba said, as he turned to Akamaru. 'Akamaru, don't put your paw in this, ok?'

Akamaru wasn't really keen of this idea and gave a small whine with it in order to show it.

'Well then, please begin.' The proctor said.

The fight went quite interesting and Kaiya didn't take her eyes off the two opponents one second. Well, three if you counted Akamaru as well. In the end, Naruto was the winner. H_e had some luck with Kiba as his opponent, _Kaiya thought., _His win owes the fact that Kiba's senses are more sensible. _

The names on the panels shuffled again, this time to show Neji's name on it. _Neji Hyuuga vs. Hinata Hyuuga. _Something clicked in Kaiya's brain. How comes she didn't know Neji had a sister?

'Oh! Is she your-' Kaiya said, dumbfounded.

'My cousin.' He cut her off quickly, before leaving.

'Oh. I see.' Kaiya said with a frown.

'Please don't take it personal, Kaiya.' Guy said, kindly. 'Neji has an rather... jumpy relationship with his cousin, that he didn't ask for. It's hard to explain.'

'I think I know the feeling.' Kaiya laughed, lightly. 'I have a cousin like that, too.'

'Really?' Guy asked in interest.

'Yeah.' Kaiya nodded, watching how Neji appeared on the floor, alongside a girl with similar features to him. _They really look alike, _Kaiya thought. _If nobody would've told me, I could've sworn they were brother and sister._

This fight was interminably long, and horrifying to watch. Kaiya's fingers tightened around the balustrade so hard she was sure that marks of her fingers will remain there.

'Kaiya-san, are you alright?' Lee asked concerned, noticing how tense Kaiya sat.

Kaiya shook her head. 'I'm alright.'

The fight eventually ended and Kaiya had to bite her tongue as hard as she could in order not to say anything to Neji. _He was just too cruel!, _her mind yelled. _He nearly killed her!_

The names shuffeled again and this time, much to her horror, Kaiya's name appeared too. _Kaiya Takahashi vs Kiba Inuzuka. _

For a second, Kaiya pursed her lips. Someone knew and played some games on her, didn't they?

'Is that your last name?' Tenten asked, surprised.

Kaiya shook her head disapprovingly. 'No. They probably added a random last name so it wouldn't seem suspicious.'

In truth, it really wasn't. There was no point in lying and confusing the people. She let go of the balustrade and took her tachi down from her back.

'Will you guys look after it while I'm down there?'she asked.

'Sure but... You're not taking it with you?' Lee asked.

'The sword is kinda heavy and since I didn't train much with it lately, I'm kinda rusty with it. It's going to bother me more rather than to help me?

She slowly made her way down the stairs to the floor. As she did so, the Hokage bend down a little from his seat, in curiosity. If the DNA results from the hospital were correct, this would definitely would be interesting...

She eventually arrived on the main floor and faced the brown-haired boy who still carried his dog on the top of his head.

'We finally get to fight again, eh, Kaiya?' Kiba greeted, with a grin.

'Seems like it.' Kaiya answered, coldly.

'Alright. Any objections?' The proctor asked the usual question.

'Not in the slightest.' Kaiya asked, as her hand reached slowly for her weapon bag.

'Not at all.' Kiba said.

'Then you may begin.' The proctor backed away.

As soon as his words escaped his mouth, the two jumped into action without hesitation.

'I wonder,' Kiba began, as he ran up to Kaiya to attack her. 'why they didn't put your real last name there!'

'Shut up!' Kaiya answered as she jumped a meter or two in the air, before throwing a kunai at him. 'I wonder why you lost against a fart! Last time I remembered, you were better than this.'

The kunai landed on the ground, very close to Kiba.

'Says the girl who ran away from home!' He snapped back. 'Akamaru, on her!'

Akamaru hurried and stuck on her leg, but he soon let go, as Kaiya shook him to an level higher than he could resist. The dog slipped through the room with an yelp, before eventually hitting an wall and loosing conciousness.

'He's out!' Kiba yelled.

'_Not now, Kiba_.' She hissed, her voice trembling. 'Not now.'

One thing was clear; Kiba exhausted his most powerful move in his last fight, so he was now stuck on figthing her with taijutsu. He took out an kunai and aimed it at her, only to be repelled back by an silvery kunai owned by Kaiya.

'Where'd you get that kunai? It's a limited edition version!' Kiba exclaimed.

'Really? I thought it looked too pretty...'Kaiya muttered to herself, befote turning her attention back to Kiba. 'I got it from a friend.'

'Really? It must be a special friend of some sort. That kunai costs a small fortune.'

For a second, Kaiya lost focus, which allowed Kiba to shot another distance attack that gave Kaiya a long scratch on her cheek. He then took out two dark-coloured balls and threw them at her. As soon as they landed at her feet, a cloud of purple smoke rised around her. _Just like in his last fight!, _Kaiya remembered.

She took a deep breath. _She could do this. _She was not much different than him; after all, they had the same roots. She already memorised his scent and if she could sense it in that could of smoke that would've been great. The only existing problem was how, along with the smoke, a quite bothering smell came along, crippling upon her nostrils.

She coughed a few times, before holding her breath and focusing on her other senses. _If I can't use my nose, I'll have to use my ears!, _she thought.

A second of silence moved along. Nothing. Two seconds of silence passed. Nothing. Three seconds of silence passed...

_Found him._

Kaiya hurried to grab the other kunai from the ground and, just as she turned around, Kiba was approaching for his attack. She jumped in the air and dodged it with her feet, before serving him a kick that would make him loose balance for a second.

As the smoke cleared, she threw Kiba's kunai in the air, along with a couple of her own, that eventually all landed in multiple places along the zone where they were. She landed above Kiba who was still on the ground and pressed her kunai lightly on his neck.

'You've improved, but-' Kiba said, before pushing Kaiya off him and creating some distance between them with a high jump.

'_Bingo._' Kaiya whispered.

She hurred to an nearby kunai and pressed her kunai upon what seemed like thin air. While still in the air, Kiba squinted his eyes a bit, before realising his mistake. Kaiya didn't cut thin air, but a very thin thread.

Just as gravity began doing its job, many threads began surrounding Kiba's body and eventually tightening around him, making him unable to do anything. He eventually hit the ground with a grunt and, after a few moments of trying to break free, he realised the helpless situation he was in.

'Free me, goddamit!' He yelled.

The proctor sighed.

'This match ends here.' He said, raising an hand. 'The winner is Kaiya Takahashi.'

Kaiya smirked as an round of applause and cheering came from somehwere in the room, most likely coming from her team. She took her kunai back, before walking over to Kiba.

'Sorry, cousin.' She said on a positive tone as she knelt down and cut the strings around his body. 'This match ends here. Perhaps we'd have one again some other time.'

With that being said, she stood up and walked away quietly, still holding a smile on her face. She walked up the stairs and rejoined her team at the balustrade and it was then that she noticed how everyone in the room looked at her. She shook her head, trying to brush off the weird feeling she got from all the stares.

It didn't take longer than a few moments, as people slowly began looking away and continuing various conversations. While they did that, the Hokage watched how Kaiya talked to her teammates, before eventually looking away, in thought. If he added up how Kaiya called the Inuzuka boy during the fight- _cousin, _as he recalled- and the blood and DNA tests that she had, then, could it be that, by any chance, the two were related? He should probably look into that as soon as possible. He turned to one of the shinobi standing next to him.

'Akira, could you please send word to the hospital to take Kiba Inuzuka and Kaiya Takahashi's Blood and DNA data and compare them to eachother? Tell them that, when they finish, they should send it to me in as fast as possible.'

'Yes, lord Hokage.' The shinobi said with an bow, before leaving.

'Wow. You... you won, Kaiya!' Tenten said, surprised.

'Did you expect any less?' Kaiya retored.

'Oh, no- not at all!' Tenten laughed, raising her hands and waving apologetically. 'It's just that you really seemed to know Kiba.'

'Oh, yeah, I noticed that too!' Lee stated.

'Well, suprisingly or not, I do. Only too well, actually.' Kaiya laughed. 'I may have not seen him in a long time so it took a bit of refreshening of memory, but he's still my cousin, after all.'

At this point, the entire group fell silent.

'Kiba's your cousin?' Neji asked, frowning.

'Yeah.' Kaiya said, rubbing the back of her neck akwardly.

'Wait. Kaiya, when you said that yoy had an cousin that you didn't get along...' Guy began, narrowing his eyebrows.

'Oh!' Kaiya exclaimed. 'It's not Kiba, I was talking about another cousin of mine. I have plenty of cousins, you see...'

'Alright.' Guy nodded, understandably.

'You never talk about your family, though. Even when we specifically asked you to.' Tenten pointed out. 'How comes you're mentioning something like that just now and so relaxingly?'

'Oh well,' Kaiya laughed awkwardly. 'Kiba is my cousin and he's here, in the same room as me. There's no point in hiding it, really. With this match, the word would've eventually gotten out since Kiba would've probaby told his parents about it.'

Tenten frowned, thinkingly, before eventually nodding acceptingly. Just as she did that, the names shuffled yet again on the boards. _Rock Lee vs. Gaara of the Sand._

Kaiya looked around the room and noticed how, along Lee, an red-haired boy carrying an giant vase on his back walked away, in order to reach the main floor. _Oh boy, _she thought. _This doesn't look good._

**A/N**

**Wassup, everyone! Surprise, surprise, guess who posted super early the next chapter?**

**This is seriously a record on how fast I post, really. I ussually post only after a week, to the very least.**

**Anyhow, here it is! Chapter 17. What do you guys think of what just got revealed? Did you expect any of it? Let me know!**

**To be honest, this chapter would've been much longer, but I decided not to write the fights before Kaiya since I assume that everyone has already seen them, so I decided not to make a chapter super long, writing over things everybody knows already. Well, let's see how I manage next chapter, since I'll have to look a bit on what happened after the fight.**

**In how much time do you guys think that I'll manage to write the next chapter?**

**See y'all in the next chapter!**

**-Avery**


	18. Friendships

'Sensei, we have to stop the fight!' Kaiya almost yelled. 'He's going to get killed!'

'Kaiya, it's alright. Calm down.' Guy tried to get the girl calm down but to no success.

She couldn't keep calm with the image that played before her. When Neji fought his cousin, she knew that, even though he had been still very cruel, the redhead boy fighting Lee was something else. Something _so _much worse.

On the arena, Lee stood up, full of scratches and breathing heavily as he put his arms in the form of an X. Neji frowned.

'Guy-sensei,' Neji addressed, 'Lee doesn't plan to...'

'I think he does, Neji.' Guy answered, worry accentuating in his eyes.

All of a sudden, the air around him began moving at great speed as the gravity around him seemed to change. After a few moments, chakra began to come out from his body and conjure him.

'Third gate of Life... open!' Lee said, his voice changing.

'Sensei, I thought Lee couldn't mould Chakra.' Kaiya said, narrowing her eyebrows.

'He can't.' Guy stated. 'This jutsu takes a lot of effort from him.'

'What jutsu is this?' Kaiya asked, after a few moments of silence.

'The Eight Gates.' Tenten answered.

That's when something in Kaiya's mind clicked and made a connection.

'I heard of that jutsu! But sensei, that's pure suicide!' Kaiya exclaimed. 'You wouldn't let Lee die, would you?'

She recalled hearing Lee and Guy talking about it a few times, but she never really gave it much importance. Guy stood silent for a while.

'Of course, I won't... and Lee won't die.' He said. 'Lee can open roughly four or five gates, and the caster won't die unless they use the eight gate.'

'I see...' Kaiya said, still watching the fight tense.

_Even if he won't die, it still looks dangerous to use., _she thought.

'Don't worry too much, Kaiya.' Guy attempted cheering her up. 'Lee's a capable ninja, you know that.'

Kaiya puffed in annoyment. 'I know that.'

'Fourth gate of pain, open!' Lee announced.

As he said that, his skin changed colour to red as his eyes turned white and pieces from the ground began breaking from the floor and began floating.

He leapt towards the redhead boy and, just as he did that, the entire floor broke. This time, Lee managed to kick the redhead boy without any obstacle. He then managed to throw the boy in the air and kick him multiple times without anyone being able to keep track of where he was.

'Amazing...' Kaiya mumbled.

With one last blow, Lee pushed the boy to the ground with all his power, making a cloud of dust arise. As the cloud cleared away, the redhead boy was on the ground surrounded by sand that probably attenuated his fall as Lee tried to get on his feet, obviously weakened and injured by the jutsu.

The redhead boy looked at Lee as he raised his right arm in his direction. As he did that, the sand around him began moving and taking the form of a hand, before making its way towards Lee, who was struggling standing up.

The sand eventually reached him and surrounded one of his legs and arm.

'Sand coffin.' The redhead said. 'Die!'

'Sensei!' Kaiya shrieked as a mass of sand hurried towards Lee.

She didn't need to say any more; just as the sand was about to hit Lee, Guy arrived just in time to dodge it. For a second, the density in the air was gone.

'Why... save him?' The redhead asked, confusion reading on his face.

For a second, Guy thought as he analyzed the boy.

'Because... he's an important subordinate of mine.' Guy eventually answered.

The redhead shook his head as he began walking away, leaving the proctor confused.

'The winner is Game-' The proctor didn't get to finish his sentence, as it seemed like the fight had yet to finish.

Behind Guy, Lee slowly stood up, raising his still usable hand as a sign that he was still ready to fight. Guy turned around to see him like that and was so shocked to see him as the boy like that, emotions took the nest of him.

'He's out of consciousness, isn't he?' Kaiya asked.

'Think so...' Tenten answered.

'The winner is Gaara.' The proctor eventually announced with a sigh.

Medical ninja hurried over to Lee to do some check-ups, and eventually, one of them sighed. Guy hurried to the group of ninja and asked, only for his face to drop in shock. After another few minutes, he eventually returned to his team.

'Will Lee be alright, Guy-sensei?' Tenten asked, worryingly.

Guy sighed as he bit his lip. 'He will. Not as good as he used to be... but alright. At least that.'

'What do you mean, sensei?' Kaiya tilted his head sideways.

'He... He won't be able to be a ninja anymore.' Guy said.

Kaiya felt like a slap hit her across the face. _How was that even possible...?_

It was about one week after the preliminaries, and Kaiya and Tenten were making their way to the hospital, carrying some flowers.

'I hope they allow Lee to go outside today.' Kaiya commented, enjoying the warm and sunny weather. 'It's a really nice day.'

'Yeah, pity that Neji didn't want to come with us, though.' Tenten said.

Kaiya shrugged. 'That's his problem.'

'Hey Kaiya, I want to ask you something.' Tenten said, slowing down the pace she was walking.

'Well, I hope it isn't about my family again. I told you everything you need to know for now.' Kaiya answered. 'Also... can you walk a bit faster, please? At that pace, by the time we're at the hospital, the flowers will be already wilted.'

'Ah- right. It wasn't about your family, Kaiya.' Tenten said. 'I just wanted to say that you really seem to care for Lee. Is there... you know, something between you two, or...?'

Kaiya looked at Tenten, weird out.

'There's nothing between us, but the course I care for Lee! He's in my team and we're good friends, just like you are with him.' Kaiya said. 'I hope I don't need romantic feelings to be allowed to care for someone.'

'Of course not!' Tenten exclaimed, quickly.

'Then let's hurry to the hospital already.' Kaiya said with a smile. 'We don't want to keep Lee waiting too much.'

'Right.' Tenten nodded, with a little surprise.

She wasn't sure if Neji or Lee noticed, but recently, Kaiya was being warmer towards them than she remembered when the girl first joined the team. She smiled more, and she seemed to not mind them so much as she did before. Tenten shook her head. She supposed it was natural, since now Kaiya became more comfortable with them and Konoha, on the whole.

Soon enough, they reached the hospital and, at last, reached Lee's room.

'Here is it.' A nurse who guided them through the hospital said, as she stopped at a door with the number 609. 'Please don't tire him too much; he's already as tired as he is.'

The two girls nodded, before entering the room. The passed through the room full of various hospital beds, until they eventually reached one with a familiar face. At their sight, the boy's face lit up.

'Tenten, Kaiya!' He said.

'Here, we brought you some flowers. Hope it makes you feel a little better.' Tenten said with a smile, as she put the flowers in a vase on Lee's nightstand.

'Speaking of it, how do you feel?' Kaiya asked, seating herself at the end of his bed.

'Oh! I'm great! Could've not been better.'He answered, with an electric look in his eyes.

Kaiya squirted her eyes a she looked at the boy. 'You sure about that?'

The boy nearly died last week and, from what she understood, he broke some bones and had other serious injuries. She had been aquintanced with him for a while now, but she couldn't help but wonder, _How __**could **__he be so optimistic_

'I couldn't be more sure!' Lee said, as he turned to the nightstand to look at an empty glass. 'Darn it. I'm out of water again.'

'I could go get you some.' Tenten offered.

'Thanks, Tenten.' He smiled. 'You're the best.'

'Then I'll be back in a minute!' Tenten said as she began walking away and, just before exiting the room, she turned around one last time. 'Be careful, you two!'

And with that, the girl slammed the door and hurried away.

'What did she want to say by 'be careful'?' Lee asked, obviously confused.

Kaiya blinked a few times in shock, as she had a flashback to their earlier discussion. 'I have no idea.'

For a second or two, there was silence. Kaiya settled herself more comfortable at the bed end and relaxed her head against a wall.

'This brings back some memories, doesn't it?' She said, with a short laugh and a smirk.

'What do you mean?' Lee asked.

'Well, one is in the hospital, and the other one is coming to visit.'

After she said that, Lee understood what she meant. Just about a month or two earlier, Kaiya had an operation and had to be in the hospital, whilst he and the rest of the team visited her on a nearly daily basis.

'It does, actually.' He answered. 'But you're doing better with that operation, aren't you?'

Kaiya looked at him in surprise. 'Yeah, I'm fine.'

Lee smiled and, just as he was about to say something, the doors opened as Tenten entered breathing heavily, with a glass in one hand and some water in a bottle.

'Sorry for... the long wait.' She said, trying to control her breath. 'I have... brought the water... here.'

'Why'd you run like that?' Kaiya asked, before shaking her head in an attempt to brush it off. 'Whatever... just come and catch your breath.'

Tenten made her way slowly towards the two and put some water in the glass for Lee, before throwing herself on a chair next to the bed. 'So, what's up?'

'Not much, honestly.' Lee said, after drinking the glass of water. 'They said that they would let me out in a day or two, but I'll have to sit with crutches for a while.

Kaiya pursed her lips, along with a sigh. 'That sucks.'

Knowing him, he wouldn't be able to bear the whole idea of constantly sitting still for god knows how long. _Knowing him, he'd find a hole in the plan very soon, _she thought.

'It really does! That way, I won't be able to train anymore for the next chuunin exams!' He exclaimed.

'You won't be in crutches forever, you know that.' Kaiya tried to cheer him up.

'Exactly!' Tenten exclaimed. 'Knowing you, you'll pass the next exams without a problem. Besides, you can always come to see the final exams. That way, you'll know what to expect.'

'That's actually a good idea.' Kaiya mumbled.

'So... how will you two train?' Lee asked. 'The finals are roughly a month from now.'

'I want to get some more weapon scrolls.' Tenten said. 'I was thinking of learning to fight with a sword, but I don't know if I can learn everything I need to know on my own...'

'Oh, I can help you with that.' Kaiya said, jerking her head up. 'I have a tachi, I think you saw it already. But I have to admit I'm a bit rusty with it-'

'Really?' Tenten asked, excitement now radiating off her. '_Thank you, thank you, thank you!' _

Tenten now jumped off her chair and went to hug Kaiya in a bear hug. As she did that, Kaiya shrank a bit, shocked by the girl's actions.

'Tenten- _I can't breathe. Please stop._' Kaiya wheezed, unsure of how to approach the situation.

Tenten let go with a laugh. 'Sorry about that! I got really excited.'

Kaiya breathed out, more comfortable now that the girl wasn't hugging her.

'But you'll have to do something for me in exchange.' Kaiya said, looking right into Tenten's eyes.'

'Oh... sure.' Tenten's eyes widened in surprise. 'What is it?'

'I still suck at controlling and moulding chakra. Perhaps you could help me with that?'

Tenten had to blink twice. The request was reasonable, but she never really remembered Kaiya for making deals like this before. She eventually smiled.

'That's a deal!'

Seeing the girl's positivity, Kaiya couldn't help but smile back. _That really is a deal, then., _she thought.

**A/N**

**Hey, y'all!**

**Your girl Avery is back. This time, it took me a few days longer to publish this darn chapter, but it's here! What did y'all think of it?**

**So, I have a bad news and a good news. The good news are too good to be told just yet, so I'll start with the bad.**

**The Easter holidays are on the verge of ending, and that means school will start again very, very soon.**

**But weep not, I will put my most honest effort in it and post every chapter as soon as possible!**

**_Now, _*****slams hand on table* it's time for the good stuff.**

**Ok, so I need to spill some tea! I'm super-duper, **_**massively**_ **excited for the next chapters, because a hella lot of stuff will happen that I've been waiting to write** **_ages_****!**

**There's going to be this really important plot twists, ****_and _****you guys will get to know everything about Kaiya. Ok... if the next chapter will be longer than predicted, Kaiya's past will be revealed in the chapter after, but yeah! *drops mic* **

**See y'all in the next chapter!**

**-Avery**


	19. Training for the finals

'Again.' Kaiya said, panting, as she held her tachi.

This was just a couple of days before the final stage of the exams, and, once she caught the trick, Tenten proved herself to be a master at using swords.

Tenten hurried towards Kaiya and pressed her **katana* **against Kaiya's sword and, after a few moments of resistance, Tenten slowly lowered her sword. 'I need a break.'

Kaiya nodded in understanding and put her sword aside as well.

'Alright.' She said. 'While you do that, I'll try to climb that darn tree with chakra and see how much I'll last before my chakra runs all out.'

Tenten narrowed her eyebrows as she sat down under a tree. 'Aren't you tired? We've been fighting on and off for over 2 hours already, and you barely even rest!'

Kaiya sighed a little bit as she looked down at the girl. 'I'm trying to work on my resistance as well, ya know? You never know when you'll need it.'

Tenten thought for a second, before getting up on her feet. 'You know what? You're right.'

She walked in front of Kaiya, who gave her a questioning look and looked into her eyes. 'Fight me, but no swords or kunais. Only ninjutsu and taijutsu.'

Kaiya looked at the girl, a little surprised, before regaining her composure. 'Fine.'

The two put all their weaponry away and, before any of them knew it, they were in the middle of a serious fight.

Kaiya jumped in the air just above Tenten and tried to push her to the ground, only for the girl to turn around and resell the move by kicking her in the stomach.

Just as she did that, Kaiya grabbed Tenten by her shoulder and served her multiple kicks. Without giving the girl the chance to defend herself, Kaiya put her hands on Tenten's shoulders and pushed herself further up in the air, before serving a final kick to Tenten that eventually threw her to the ground.

Tenten rolled on the ground and hurried to grab one of her kunai. 'Change of plans! We can use weapons.'

Kaiya huffed as she landed, looking at Tenten carefully. Tenten made a dart at Kaiya but, just as she was about to land an attack, she found herself meeting a log along with some smoke.

'Hey, you can use the Replacement technique!' Tenten exclaimed.

Before she even realised what happened, Kaiya suddenly appeared behind her and kicked her on her back, making her lose balance and fall. As she did that, Kaiya didn't give her a chance to react and blocked her by, once on the ground, putting a kunai at her neck.

'Yeah! I've learned some stuff too, y'know?' Kaiya said.

Suddenly, a cloud of smoke appeared, only for Kaiya to notice that she didn't hold a kunai against someone, but rather _something. _She squinted her eyes, only to curse under her breath in the realisation that she got tricked by her own medicine.

She stood up and kicked the log as hard as she could, with no regrets. For a moment, she stood still, trying to locate the girl.

For a brief moment, even the leaves stopped rustling as every smell disappeared. _Darn it, I didn't know she's so good at covering her tracks, _Kaiya thought.

She tensed her hand around her kunai and turned her head around a few times. Where was Tenten...? Seeing how nothing happened, Kaiya made the mistake of relaxing her muscles for a second with a quiet sigh.

Just as she did that, a wave of kunais bolted towards her. Kaiya noticed them last minute from the corner of her eye and turned around to dodge them.

'Earth release: Mud wall.' Kaiya said under her breath as she formed the fitting hand signs, before spitting a large amount of mud that immediately created a wall.

The wall wasn't the best mud wall ever made -it wasn't much taller than Kaiya herself, nor much thicker than four fingers next to each other- but, for a fact, it made its job and defended Kaiya well.

But one thing Kaiya didn't expect was, as she turned around, the kunais rose up on their own and aimed at Kaiya, yet again. This time, her defence wasn't so good, as she only used her kunai. The result? This time, there were much more scratches than Kaiya wanted.

After all the kunais dropped once and for all, Tenten made herself present, with a huge grin on her face.

'Alright, alright, no need to mock me...I'll let you win this time.' Kaiya said, raising her hands in defeat.

The two girls walked and sat under one tree, giving Kaiya the chance to drink all the water she brought with herself.

'It was a nice match, but I still need to work more on the chakra control, though.' Kaiya said, wiping her mouth with her hand. 'Do you know any other jutsu I could learn?'

'Well... I don't know. You already can climb trees with no problem and you can create a defence... I can't really think of anything right now. Taking that you can defend yourself and how good you can work with kunais and taijutsu, I think you're fine for now.'

'_Hn_.' Kaiya nodded.

'Hey, I have an idea!' Tenten jolted up, making Kaiya shriek back in surprise by her sudden action. 'Why don't you ask Guy-sensei to teach you the summoning technique?'

'The... summoning tehnique?' Kaiya asked, obviously confused.

'Yeah! You can summon various animals that you can train to become ninjas.'

Kaiya frowned, amused. 'That's silly.'

'It's not, I swear! Do you know Sakura's teacher? Kakashi-sensei?' Tenten asked, as Kaiya nodded. 'He has an entire pack of **ninken*.'**

'Ninja dogs?'

Tenten nodded. 'According to Guy-sensei, Kakashi-sensei always had a thing for dogs. He grew up with them or something...'

'What can Guy-sensei summon?' Kaiya tilted her head.

'A turtle.' Tenten answered, bluntly. ' I-I know it sounds silly, but that turtle can really be useful.'

Kaiya blinked two times as she took a breath. 'It sounds good and all, but there are only three days until the finals. It would be impossible for me to learn it.'

Tenten shrugged. 'You can try!'

Kaiya said.

'Maybe after the finals. Now I want to focus on what I already can do and where I can improve.' She said, as she got up. 'I don't know about you, but I'm starving right now. Do you want to come with me?'

A wide smile appeared on Tenten's face.

'Sure!' She said.

'Maybe we can have another match with the swords after.' Kaiya smiled back, as she collected her kunai and put her Tachi on her back.

Meanwhile, the Hokage's Office was full of tensity. The third Hokage held two papers received from the hospital, as a nurse sat there tense, along with a particular ANBU member.

'So... they _are _in fact, related?' The Hokage asked.

The two papers held each blood and DNA results, one with the name _Kiba Inuzuka, _and one with the name _Kaiya Takahashi._

'It seems so, Hokage-sama.' The nurse said.

'Thank you, Ayame-san.' The Hokage nodded. 'I'd like to keep these papers a little longer.'

The woman nodded, before leaving the room.

'Why wouldn't she give her name? Could she possibly be an exile from the Inuzuka clan?' Asumi, still wearing her ANBU mask, asked.

'Perhaps, but then I'm sure that I- or the Fourth Hokage himself, if that was the case- would've known of it.' The Hokage asked.

'So what do we do?' Asumi asked.

The Hokage sighed. 'I'd like to ask her about this whole situation myself.'

'Should I continue on watching her? She didn't show any suspicious activity.'

'Speaking of that... I think that you _may, _in fact, stop with controlling her non-stop.' He said, unsure of his decision. 'Could it be much asked if you would still check on her, from time to time?'

'No, sir. Not at all.!' Asumi said.

'I'm glad. You may be off, now.' He said, and the woman disappeared immediately. 'Akira-san, please search for Kaiya and bring her here, please.'

Akira, the ex-Konoha entrance guard, recently got promoted to guarding the Hokage's door. In his opinion, it was an honour. As he heard the Hokage's orders, he bowed, before rushing to fulfil them.

In a couple of minutes, he was back. This time, accompanied by someone.

'You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?' Kaiya asked, with a bow.

The Hokage smiled a little to himself. From when he last talked to her, her manners have definitely improved. Not alone the manners, but she looked healthier, too; she was cleaner and had definitely lesser bruises.

'Yes, I did.' He said. 'I wanted to ask you something about your family.'

Kaiya tensed immediately as her heart began racing. Could they have found out about her family? Did Kiba tell them anything that might've uncover her lies?

'What about them?' She asked, ice-cold.

'Are you related, by any chance, to Kiba Kiba Inuzuka?'

Kaiya sighed in relief, her body leaving behind some of the tensity, but not all.

'Yes, I am.' She said. 'He's my cousin.'

'Your cousin? I see.' The Hokage thought for a moment. 'Did you come here in Konoha because of him?'

Kaiya frowned. 'Sir, I absolutely had no idea that my cousin lived here. When I first came here, I gave you an answer about why I am here. My answer didn't change one bit ever since.'

The Hokage looked down for a few moments. He didn't expect such determination coming from her.

'I understand.' The Hokage said as he looked back up. 'That was all I wanted to ask you. Thank you for being fair with me.'

'You're welcome, sir.' Kaiya answered, before turning away and taking her leave.

That evening before the finals was a rather quiet one. It seemed like even the Konoha residents, ninja or not, were quietly waiting for the final part of the Chuunin exams, where outsiders were welcome to watch the fights.

Nobody could blame them, though- there weren't many attractions in that large metropolitan from the Land of Fire.

'Are you excited for tomorrow?' Lee asked, as he slurped some noodles his bowl of ramen.

That day, Lee asked his team if they were free that evening -since, willingly or not, he couldn't train and had nothing better to do- so they could go to Ichiraku's Ramen. Neji, as expected, refused and Tenten apologised that she couldn't come due to the fact that she already had planned a dinner with her own family. Since Kaiya didn't train at such late hours and didn't have any other plans, she accepted. And that meant that dinner would be just the two of them.

'To be honest, I don't know.' Kaiya said with all the honesty within her. 'The opponents all seem really threatening. Besides...'

'Hm? Besides what?' Lee tilted his head to a side in curiosity.

'The boy you fought in the preliminaries -Gaara, was it?- is the biggest threat there is, I think. Ever since I saw what he did to you and what he's capable of, I keep thinking about what if I'll have to fight him. You know, that kind of thing...'

'Don't stress yourself too much, Kaiya-san.' Lee smiled. 'I'm sure that if it gets too serious, they won't let you die.'

'Are you sure?' Kaiya sighed, as she rolled the noodles in her bowl around her chopsticks.

'Guy-sensei will be there, and so will be I.'

Kaiya smiled. In a way or another, that felt reassuring. After all, Guy-sensei stepped in when Lee nearly died. He would do the same for her as well, wouldn't he...?

'Thanks, Lee.' She said. 'I feel a little better now.'

The rest of the dinner went quite quietly, as the two enjoyed each their bowl of ramen while having other topics than the Chuunin exams. The two eventually finished and paid for the food and it was, alas, time to say goodbye.

'Do you live far from here?' Lee asked as they exited the restaurant.

'Not really. About five minutes on foot from here.'

'Let me walk you home.'

'I'm- I'm sorry?'

'Would you let me walk you home?' Lee rephrased.

'It's not necessary.' Kaiya laughed, awkwardly. 'It's quite late and-'

'Exactly- I want to make sure you get home safely. Besides, I don't live too far away.'

Kaiya looked away for a second, in thought. He was a nice company to have around, and if he insisted he didn't live far away, what would she have to loose?

'Ok, then.' She eventually said. 'Let's go.'

Just as Kaiya approximated, they were in front of an apartment complex in about five minutes. It wasn't anything fancy, but there was nothing to whine about.

'Is this where you live?' Lee asked, looking at the building.

'Yeah. Nothing too fancy, but-' Kaiya said as she took out some keys from her pockets. 'For one person, it's just great.'

They entered the building and, after two flights of stairs, they finally reached Kaiya's apartment. Kaiya opened the door and entered immediately, but Lee had to stay in one place and look around for a second.

It was a fairly spacious square room with a small kitchen and a living room -that consisted of only a red couch, a small table made out of wood and glass and a small rug- that might've once seemed different, without various blankets and rugs placed on the floor.

'What's with all the...?' Lee asked, pointing to all the blankets and rugs.

'All that?' Kaiya laughed. 'Sorry 'bout that- old habits.'

Lee preferred to only nod. One thing was clear was him. Sometimes, you better take your time with things you don't understand. He looked at the clock on the wall and he couldn't help but feel a little surprised. It was already 10 pm.

'It's already _that _late, huh?' Kaiya said, looking in the same direction. 'Do you live far, Lee?'

'I live... five kilometres from here.' He said, still looking at the clock.

'That's quite a bit. Do you want to stay here over night?' Kaiya offered.

'Over... night?' Lee asked, his head jolting in Kaiya's direction in confusion.

'Yeah. Five kilometres is quite a distance, and I think it's common sense how dangerous streets can be at night. Besides, it wouldn't really bother me.'

Lee blinked twice in surprise and considered for a moment.

'Thank you Kaiya-san.' He said. 'I hope you don't mind I'll sleep on the couch.'

Kaiya smiled. 'Let be bring you a pillow and a blanket.'

Lee thanked as he sat on the couch, his crutches next to him, and admired the apartment. It wasn't much, but it was just enough for one person. Just as he thought that Kaiya entered back the room, now holding a pillow and a blanket.

'Thank you, Kaiya-san.' He said, as he reached for the pillow and blanket.

'No problem.' Kaiya said, before walking away. 'Good night, Lee.'

'Good night...'

Most of the night went rather quietly. Much to Lee's surprise, the red couch Kaiya owned turned out to be very comfortable, so he was able to sleep well on it. Well, almost the entire night, though.

Somewhere around two, maybe three in the morning, he woke up to a sound. Still half-asleep, he raised his head up and listened carefully. This time, he could almost tell what it was.

The sound was like a whimper, coming from a small hallway where he assumed to be Kaiya's bedroom. _Maybe she's having a bad dream., _he thought as he laid his head back on his pillow.

As he did that, the whimpering continued only so that moments later, a scream could be heard. Lee jumped to his feet, only to fall back on the couch in pain. He bit his lip for a second in pain, before grabbing his crutches and got up in a slower manner, determined to find out what happened.

He walked down the small hallway only to find a single, half-open door. He pushed the door open and noticed a Kaiya full of sweat on her head and breathing heavily.

'Are you alright?' He said as he walked up to her and sat on her bed.

'I'm... I'm sorry. I woke you up.' Kaiya said with a shaky voice, between breaths.

'Don't worry about me- I'm fine.' Lee spoke, softer. 'Did you have a bad dream?'

Kaiya looked at the boy for a second, before letting her back fall back on the bed

'I guess you could say that, except it's reality.'

Lee thought for a moment.

'The Chuunin exams?' He guessed.

'No.' Kaiya shook her head. 'It doesn't matter.'

Lee closed his eyes for a second, meditating.

'Ok then.' He said as he prepared his crutches to get up. 'If you need me, just-'

He didn't get to finish his sentence, as Kaiya reached for his hand. Normally, she would've been disgusted by her own actions, but right now, she was too tired to care.

'Please stay for a little longer.'

Lee looked at the girl for a moment. Her eyes, although tired, had a begging look he couldn't refuse.

'Alright.' He said as he responded to Kaiya's grip.

**A/N **

**Hey y'all. How are you guys doing?**

**So this chapter is much shorter and unexpected than the other chapters. Why, you may ask? Well, I literally just wrote most of this today and, at the end, I was thinking, ****_should I add the finals? _**

**In the end, I was like ****_'y'know what? Leave it. The finals have a lot of plot.' _****So, I guess I'll leave the finals and the whole revealing for the next chapters because, to be honest? There'll be much plot, and I really wanted people to enjoy the fight between Kaiya and Tenten good. So yeah, here we are.**

**I also felt like I neglected Asumi for a really long time, so here we are!**

**As I said, school starts soon, so don't expect updates VERY often, but I'll do my best on it, so don't forget that.**

**So, see you in the next chapters, I guess!**

**-Avery**


	20. A reunion

**A/N:**  
I'm not really sure how long this chapter will be (I'm literally just 500 words into it), but one disclaimer I need to give is that I'll kinda just skip the final exam fights because there's tea to be spilt and I won't write all the canon things. Thanks, and enjoy!

Kaiya could feel the sweat drops rolling down from her forehead to her cheeks and then down her neck as she stood in the middle of the arena, who was full of people on the sides, who wanted to see the upcoming fights.

Next to her stood Neji, Naruto, the redhead boy who fought against Lee and a girl Kaiya saw during the preliminaries. One thing was clear; they were all genin who passed the preliminaries, ready to become a chuunin. Kaiya wasn't really sure about how the other's felt about this whole situation, but she couldn't feel anything but nervousness. She prayed that, when her match will come, it wouldn't be against Neji, as she had absolutely no chance against him.

In front of them stood their proctor- a man in his mid-20's or early 30's with a headband covering his entire head and a straw in his mouth, along with a relaxed look on his face.

'Alright, alright.' The proctor sighed. 'Welcome to the final stage of the chuunin exams. Let's get into the first round.'

The air tensed as the spectators stopped talking as the participants looked at each other nervously.

'The first round will consist of...' The proctor checked a paper. 'Neji Hyuuga and Naruto Uzumaki.'

Kaiya couldn't help but sigh a little in relief. _She was safe for now._ The proctor instructed the rest of the participants to get away from the arena, and everybody obeyed with no hesitation.

They all placed themselves on the first row of seats, watching carefully. A few minutes into the fight, Kaiya couldn't help but be impressed by both opponents' skills.

'Hi, do you mind if we'd sit here?'

Kaiya looked up startled, to see Sakura, accompanied by a blonde girl who looked at her curiously.

'No, not at all.' She answered. 'Take a seat.'

The two girls sat down quietly and continued to watch the fight.

'Neji's in your team, right?' Sakura asked.

'Mhm.' Kaiya said, with a nod.

'Oh, so you're in a team with-' The blonde girl began, but without getting the chance to finish.

'_Ino, I told you about this.' _Sakura hissed.

Kaiya couldn't stop herself from letting out a laugh. The two girls looked at her confusedly.

'I'm sorry.' She apologised before something dawned upon her. 'Wait, didn't you two fight each other in the preliminaries?'

The two girls sweat-dropped, with a chuckle.

'We did.' The blonde girl named Ino said, with a smile. 'But we're on better terms now. Right, Sakura?'

'Right!' Sakura nodded, with enthusiasm, before turning her attention back to the fight. 'Neji's got really strong, didn't he?'

'Oh yes!' Kaiya approved. 'He's got quite stronger than I last remembered him. To be honest, I haven't really seen much of him during the last, so God knows what he did during all that.'

'Same goes for Naruto.' Sakura related. 'I mean, I guess he was still quite strong _before _the finals, but I haven't seen him very much. From what I understood, he was training under Jiraiya-same.'

'Jiraiya?' Kaiya asked astonished, in recognition of the name. 'Jiraiya the Sannin?'

From what she heard ever since she was little was how there were these three people -two men and a woman, to be exact- who, during the second great ninja war, each got the title of Sannin for their amazing skills and abilities. And one of the three Sannins lived under the name of Jiraiya.

'Mhm, _the _Jiraiya!'

'I see...' Kaiya mumbled.

The fight went on quite a bit and, even though Neji eventually lost, both of them didn't fail to amaze Kaiya, especially Naruto. It was true, at some point a weird, orange chakra emerged from all over the nota's body, but Kaiya tried and didn't put too much thought into it. After all, only the lord would know what kind of jutsus there could be. _Especially the ones taught by a Sannin..., _Kaiya couldn't help but think.

As the fight ended, a ninja exchanged some messages between the Proctor and the Hokage.

'Alright, the second fight will be between...' The proctor sighed, in thought. 'Shino Aburame and Kankūro of the Sand.'

The crowd murmured, clearly unpleased. But, much to their pleasure, the boy named Kankūro gave up early on as he said something of the sort that he wanted to keep his techniques a secret.

'Fine.' The proctor said. 'Then we'll move on to the next round... Temari of The Sand and Shikamaru Nara.'

None of them complained and prepared for the fight.

'Go, Shikamaru!' The blonde girl named Ino yelled supportively.

The fight wasn't particularly long, but it was sure something. The two turned out to be great masterminds for their battles, leaving it to see which one was better. In the end, the fight turned into Shikamaru's favour, but, for some reasoning, Kaiya couldn't understand, the boy didn't take it and gave up in the last hundred metres of the fight.

'He's a great tactician, but I don't get it- he could've won!' Kaiya told the two girls.

'Yeah, I know.' Ino said, rubbing her nerves. 'Shikamaru's really smart, but he has about the same amount of laziness as his intelligence. That _idiot._'

Hearing the girl's comments, Kaiya couldn't help but feel amused. The blonde girl really seemed good friends with Shikamaru and the way she talked about him, well, it reminded her a few her brothers. For a moment, the thought of her brothers had an effect on her, but she quickly shook her head, brushing off those feelings of bittersweetness. _Now's not the right moment, Kaiya. Not now._, she thought.

The proctor exchanged a few other words with the Hokage, as, all of a sudden, two familiar faces appeared in the middle of the arena.

A white-haired man in his mid-20's appeared along with a teen boy with dark hair. At their sight, Sakura and Ino gasped, along with most of the public.

'Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-Kun are here!' Sakura said, relieved. 'Thank God.'

As she said that, something dawned upon Kaiya.

'Sasuke wasn't here earlier.' She said in realisation. 'Where was he?'

'Kakashi-sensei took care to train him personally for the past month.' Sakura explained. 'I'm not really sure where or how, but he did that. And they're _late._'

'I see.' Kaiya muttered.

'The next round will be between Sasuke Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara of the Sand.' The proctor announced, obviously relieved.

The public roared with excitement. To cut them some slack, both opponents were skilled.

'I don't really like this.' Kaiya told Sakura. 'You know what happened in the preliminaries when Gaara had to fight with Lee.'

The two girls nodded, in agreement.

'That's right. Speaking of Lee... how's he doing?' Ino asked.

'Oh, he's doing much better!' Kaiya exclaimed as she looked over the large crowd behind her. 'He should be somewhere here in the crowd.'

'I'm glad to hear.' Ino smiled. 'Your name is Kaiya, right?'

The sudden act of kindness took Kaiya aback and made her pray that the girl wouldn't notice how her face gained a tint of pink.

'Yeah, that's me.' Kaiya answered. 'What's your name?'

'I'm Ino Yamanaka.' Ino answered. 'Nice to meet you.'

Kaiya smiled in response, as she returned her head back to the area, to notice how the fight began already.

The fight was about just as Kaiya expected. Violent, bloody, and full of sand. This time, though, things took a slightly different turn.

The boy named Sasuke turned out to be quite a resisting opponent, but, sadly for him, they didn't get to fight to the very end. Just as Sasuke laid an effective attack against Gaara, penetrating his sand wall of protection, a wave of feathers began falling from the sky. As they fell, a feeling of sleepiness laid itself upon the public, including Kaiya.

People began yawning and each slowly falling to the ground sound asleep. Kaiya felt how the feeling of sleepiness got stronger and stronger and noticed how Sakura used a jutsu that repelled all the feathers around her.

'S...Sakura...' Kaiya said, struggling to remain conscious as she fell from her chair.

'Right. Sorry, Kaiya.' Sakura said as she hurried to apply the same jutsu upon Kaiya. 'You'll get better really quick-'

Just as she wished to say more, Sakura was pushed away by someone and made their way to Kaiya. Sakura was fine, but she was confused by the actions. She didn't get to see the person's face, but judging on their back and body, they were a woman with long, brown hair and dirty clothes that clearly didn't belong to a shinobi.

'Kaiya- Kaiya get up already.' The woman said, as they shook Kaiya's body agitated, before looking up for a second, as if looking for someone. 'Akira, Amida, we found her!'

Kaiya, who now regained her consciousness back, nearly jolted up in recognition of the voice. She looked up, wide-eyed, and her heart skipped a beat.

'Mom? Mom! What are you _doing _here?' She asked as she got up on her knees, her heart now racing in confusion.

'I should ask the same question, young lady.' The woman hissed, obviously angry.

Just as the woman said that two boys around 16 with scruffy, brown hair appeared and jumped over the tributes until they arrived next to Kaiya and her mother.

'Lady Kaiya, so you're still alive, eh?' One of the boys asked, with a laugh.

'Akira...' Kaiya murmured, looking at the boys helpless.

'Akira, _shut up._' Kaiya's mother snapped.

As the scene played before her, Sakura couldn't help but watch speechless. _Mother...? _As she sat there, one of the boys noticed her and, with one jump, he was next to her. She backed away in shock and put her arms around her head in an attempt to protect herself.

'Hi, there!' He said, energetically. 'Do you know Kaiya?'

'Amida, leave Sakura alone!' Kaiya said as she looked over her mother's shoulder, coming a little back to her senses.

'_Yeah, Amida.' _The other boy, Akira, mocked. 'Leave the girl alone.'

'Listen to your brother and come here.' Fuzasane said, seeing how Amida hesitated.

Amida mumbled something unintelligible before he eventually returned back where he sat earlier.

'So what do we do now, Fuzasane-same?' Akira asked.

Kaiya's mother rested her chin against her chest in thought.

'We should probably return back home. We've been gone for over a month now, they should be worried.' She eventually decided.

Akira and Amida nodded obediently along with an _in, _but Kaiya couldn't agree.

'_No.' _She said.

'What?' Her mother spat out. 'You mean to say-'

'You've been away for over a month, mother. You said it yourself.' Kaiya said calmly, looking right into her mother's eyes. 'You should get some rest, don't you think? Otherwise the chances of getting home will be very small.'

Her mother bit her lip as she considered for a moment.

'She's right, you know?' Amida said.

Fuzasane puffed lowly in displeasure. '_Fine. _But not for long.'

Hearing her answer, a large smile appeared on Kaiya's face. 'Thank you.'

Fuzasane's face softened a little. 'Don't get too excited, ok? It's not forever.'

Kaiya nearly wanted to jump and hug her, but she shook her head as she looked around.

'I have a lot to tell your mother, but let's see what we can do here first.' Kaiya said as she got up on her feet.

'Speaking of here... what happened?' Fuzasane asked, looking around.

'It's hard to explain- I have no idea.' Kaiya said as she went over to Sakura. 'Are you alright, Sakura?'

'I'm- I'm fine, thank you.' Sakura answered.

Kaiya looked around, hoping to see someone who wasn't the enemy still awake. Much to her relief, she noticed Guy and Kakashi still awake, trying to figure out what happened.

'Guy-sensei!' Kaiya called out.

The man turned around and, once noticing her, a wave of happiness appeared on his face. He said something to Kakashi, before making his way towards his student.

'Sensei? Is that man your teacher?' Fuzasane asked, narrowing her eyebrows.

'He looks weird.' Amida pointed out.

'I know, but he's really cool.'

'Sakura, Kakashi-sensei is there, too.' Kaiya told Sakura, who seemed to be just as relieved as her.

Sakura called out for her teacher, who preferred to respond with a polite smile and a nod as he made his way there, behind Guy.

'Wait... The man behind your teacher, who is he?' Fuzasane asked Kaiya, with anxiety growing inside her.

'Um... His name is Kakashi Hatake and he is Sakura's teacher. Maybe she can tell you more if you want to. Why?'

Kaiya turned around to look at her mother, only to see her hands begging to shake as something Kaiya thought to be horror growing in her eyes.

'_Kaiya,' _her mother said decisively. 'we need to leave this place _right now.'_

'Hm? Why?'Kaiya asked, confused.

Just as she asked that the two men arrived. It was at this moment that Kakashi noticed Fuzasane and, to be fair, the air around tensed for a moment.

'Are you alright, Sakura?' Kakashi asked, moving his attention to Sakura.

'Yes, sensei. I managed to put a repelling jutsu and I managed not to fall asleep.'

'Good job.' He congratulated and patted her head.

Kaiya looked at Guy, expecting him to say something, but instead, he pulled her into a bear hug.

'Sensei... _don't..._' Kaiya whispered uncomfortably, unsure of how to react.

'_Keep your hands off my daughter, teacher or not.' _Fuzasane snarled, pulling Kaiya out of the hug.

'Don't mess with her, she's _scary.' _Amida whispered, pointing to Fuzasane.

A simple glare was all Amida needed to quiet down.

'I'm sorry, ma'am-' Guy began to apologise, as something dawned upon him. 'Wait, did you say 'daughter', miss?'

Kaiya laughed awkwardly. 'About that... Yes, she's my mother.'

'You... You didn't tell them about your family?' Fuzasane asked, slightly amused.

'I didn't even tell them my last name.' Kaiya snorted. 'But some of them _may or may not know _that Kiba is my cousin.'

'Well, I guess there's no point in hiding it now.' Fuzasane said. 'So, Tsume-chan's here?'

'Yeah, it appears so. Kiba says he grew up here, so I doubt aunt Tsume ever moved away from here for the past decade or so.'

'Kiba's your cousin?' Sakura said, surprised.

Kaiya nodded.

'Speaking of which... you got me curious about your family name now.' Guy said, rubbing his neck

Kaiya sighed and looked at her mother. 'Can I really tell them, mother?'

Her mother shrugged. 'They already know that Kiba's your cousin- it doesn't matter now as the word would get out anyway.'

Kaiya looked at her mother for a few more moments expecting her to change her mind, but nothing happened.

'Well, aren't you going to tell the man? You got him curious.' Her mother said, pointing at Gai.

Kaiya's cheek twitched.

'Fine.' She turned her look back to Gai. 'My name is Kobayashi. _Kaiya _Kobayashi.'

Hearing the name, Kakashi's face whitened.

'Kobayashi, you say?' He asked, doing his best not to stutter.

'That's right, _Kakashi.' _Fuzasane hissed as she searched for direct eye-contact with the silver-haired man.

'Do you two know each other?' Guy asked, confused.

Fuzasane closed her eyes for a moment, as her whole body twitched.

'Mum...?' Kaiya asked, as a feeling of worries took over her. 'Are you alright?'

'I'll tell you later.' Fuzasane decided, looking onto the ground.

Kaiya looked at her mother in disbelief. She knew for a fact that when her mother said that, she'd either get a scolding over something or never mentioning the subject ever again. 'You sure?'

'Listen to Fuzasane-sama, Kaiya-san.' Akira requested, quietly. '_Please.' _

Due to the mask on his face, nobody saw how Kakashi's mouth worded the name _Fuzasane, _and maybe it was for the better. If Fuzasane was Kaiya's mother and the girl was the age he approximated, then... _no. _This _had_ to be a misunderstanding... wouldn't it?

'_I'll tell you later.' _Her mother insisted.

Kaiya shook her head, forcing herself to accept the answer as it was. 'So be it.'

'Do you really want to know what the problem _really is?' _Her mother asked as her head jolted up as her brown eyes fixed on her, with a new layer of eagerness.

Kaiya laughed nervously with a change of mind as she slightly raised her hands in defeat. 'You can tell me la-'

'_No. Some _people might want to know about this.'

Kaiya shook her head with a sigh. _Why did it always have to be like that...?_

'_Some _people who decided to leave things behind like nothing and curse the innocent!'

Kaiya frowned. 'What do you mean?'

'It's about your father.'

'Dad? Did something happen to him?' Kaiya asked quickly, in a moment of panic.

'No, not _the _dad.' Fuzasane swayed her hand quickly. 'I meant your real father.'

'Oh?' Kaiya asked.

Back at home, she _did, _in fact, have a father, but she knew that he wasn't her real, biological one even from a young age. Even so, she really cared for him and considered his father. After all, he raised her well and he seemed to care for her, too.

'He never bothered to come or even _ask _about you, and he's here. Right _here_.'

For a moment, Kaiya felt confused, but after noticing her mother staring suggestively towards Kakashi, Kaiya's face whitened as her heart skipped a beat or two. Everyone in that group had about the same reaction, as they all fell silent.

'No...' Kaiya began, her voice trembling, 'you wouldn't mean _that._  
_Right?_'

'I know exactly what I mean, Kaiya.' Fuzasane told Kaiya, before lowering her voice. 'This man right here -Kakashi if I recall-, _is _your father.'

At that moment, even the birds went quiet. Even if Fuzasane lowered her voice, everyone there heard her perfectly. Kaiya looked at her mother, then at Kakashi -who was in no better state of shock-, and then again at her mother before the cycle repeated a few times. She laughed nervously.

'I'm sure that this is- no... this _must _be a misunderstanding! He can't be my father.'

'May... may I say something?' Guy asked awkwardly, slightly raising his hand for permission.

'What?' Fuzasane asked.

'It so happened that, whilst a mission, Kaiya got a rather deep wound over her appendix and, after she returned and went to the hospital, she needed an operation to get the appendix out- for her better health you know?'

'Yeah, go on.' Fuzasane hurried the man with a flick of a hand. She understood the idea of wounds and operations very well, and, to be fair with herself, such things didn't matter very much at that moment.

'So, of course, for safety reasons, they had to take some blood and DNA tests.'

Amida opened his mouth to say something, but Akira made him a sign to shut up. The story turned out to be quite interesting, so Amida listened to his brother.

'They took them,' Guy continued, 'and well, the blood results don't matter much here as they're pretty much ordinary, but when the DNA results came in, it was shown that Kaiya's DNA matched Kakashi's DNA, a DNA unknown to us at the time that was a little similar to the Inuzuka's DNA.'

Fuzasane nodded for a few moments in thought as she digested the information, but Kaiya didn't really have the same reaction.

'Then why did no one tell me anything? If I knew that you guys knew so much-'

'You didn't tell us anything about your past, let alone your family name. Hokage-same thought it was for the better not to push it.' The guy explained, carefully.

He was as shocked as anybody else, but one thing he learned as a shinobi was how to keep his calm. He shot a look at Kakashi, and he was standing there as stoic as he always was. Guy knew him from a young age and he learned by now to read him a little bit, and it was clear to him how, as stoic as he was, there was _something _different in Kakashi at that moment. He wasn't sure what, but something in his aura was different.

Kaiya shook her head as she stepped back.

'I'm sorry.' She apologised, before turning her back and leaving.

**A/N**

**Heyyo, everyone! How's it going?**

**I'm back here with an extra long chapter here with like, 3.4K worth of words. So, what do you guys think of this chapter?**

**I waited for a really long time to write this chapter -and yes, it got really interesting at the half, but I couldn't really skip the **_**entire **_**canon part, so y' know- so, here it is! **

**What did you guys think of Fuzasane's (Kaiya's mother) appearance?**

**Note: for any curious souls, Amida and Akira **_**are **_**brothers, and are Kaiya's cousins.**

**What did you guys think of the revealing? **

**P.S. What do y' all think of the new cover? I renamed the book back to its original title, 'The Nomad', but I kept the name 'The Possessions of the Wild' as the series name (as there'll be a second book too, and maybe a spin-off), so it'll still be as easy to find.**

**Let me know!**

**See ya in the next chapter!**


	21. The past of the nomad

That day, the village became a rampage in only a couple of hours and it's beauty as a whole was nearly gone.

It was a couple of hours later, after the attack, and Kaiya was taking her mother to her apartment, without hurry.

'Was it absolutely necessary to sent Amida and Akira back home?'Kaiya asked. 'They must be really tired.'

'They're capable boys. I'm sure they'll do another 3 days until home just fine.' Fuzasane shrugged. 'Besides, I wanted to talk to you more privately.'

_'Hm.' _

Kaiya couldn't help but tense a little- They haven't seen each other in over three years. Who knows what she'd want to scold her about? Her mother didn't make any further comments until they eventually found themselves in front of Kaiya's apartment door.

'Now, don't expect me to have any fancy apartment, alright? I'm not doing as good as you might think.' Kaiya said, unlocking the door.

Fuzasane mumbled something that sounded much like _We'll see about that. _For a moment, Kaiya stopped. She looked down the hallway and noticed an old man in a yellow polo and glasses- a neighbour of hers.

'Good afternoon, Takahata-san!' Kaiya called out with a small wave. 'How are you?'

'I'm good, thank you for asking, Kaiya-chan.' The old man answered with a smile, glad to see the girl.

He hardly ever had any company in the past decade and, as it seemed, Kaiya was the only person in the building to notice and greet him. It was nice to talk to someone every now and then.

But, things were a bit different for Fuzasane. She looked around the hallway with a frown, but couldn't notice anyone.

'Who are you talking to, Kaiya?' Ahe asked urgently.

Kaiya looked at her mother dumbfounded.

'I'm talking to my neighbour, mr. Takahata. He's right there.' Kaiya said, pointing to the old man.

'Kaiya, _there's no one there.' _Fuzasane said, her heart now racing.

She was fairly sure that her daughter wasn't insane. _It couldn't be it, could it...? Not her daughter. _Fuzasane shook her head. Her daughter was _not _a Spirit-Seer.

'Let's go in.' Fuzasane said, making a sign with her head towards the Apartment's door.

'Fine.' Kaiya obliged, having the same thoughts as her mother.

Kaiya pushed the door, her apartment now becoming accessible. Kaiya entered without any problems with a light sigh of relief, while Fuzasane hesitated, analysing the apartment from the outside. Kaiya pursed her lips as she looked at her mother.

'Come on in, mother. The apartment won't hurt you.' Kaiya said, slightly sarcastically.

Fuzasane puffed in annoyment, before eventually entering. She closed the door behind her and began to walk around slowly, making her way into the small kitchen.

'This is nice...' Fuzasane said, looking around the kitchen.

Kaiya opened her mouth to take the compliment, but she never got the chance to do so.

'But this apartment has another smell than yours.' Fuzasane pointed out.

Kaiya's cheek twitched, as she screamed internally. _How could she forget that her mother had such a good sense of smell? _After all, it was in the family...

'Maybe it's the ex-owners' smell, mother.' Kaiya laughed nervously. 'After all, I didn't move in that long ago...'

'No, this smell is fresh.' Fuzasane argued. 'This smell is from yesterday, and, if my nose doesn't fail me... this belongs to a male, maybe around your age.'

Kaiya sighed, looking to the ground. _There was no point in lying._

'Yes, a teammate of mine was here yesterday evening.' She admitted.

'Is that so?' Fuzasane asked.

Kaiya knicked as Fuzasane made her way towards her from the kitchen. The woman put a strong grip with her hands on her shoulders, sending in a shock throughout the girl's entire body.

'Look me in the eyes and _don't _lie to me, Kaiya.' Fuzasane ordered. 'Did you two do anything yesterday?'

Kaiya looked back into her mother's eyes fiercely. She _knew_ she wasn't lying.

'We didn't.' She answered, calmly.

After a few moments in which the staring contest continued, Fuzasane eventually looked away with a few puffs of annoyment as she let go of Kaiya, who now started to massage her shoulders, muttering something vulgar under her breath.

'You said you wanted to talk to me about something?' Kaiya asked, taking a seat on the couch.

She wasn't sure where this would lead to, but she hoped it wasn't anything _too _bad.

'Actually, I did.' Fuzasane said as she leaned onto the kitchen counter, her eyes widening. 'After I recover a little bit, I'd like you to return with me to the Kobayashi clan. You've been too long away from home.'

Kaiya frowned with a small sigh of stress.

'I don't know, mother.' She said. 'The place brings many memories back and... well, I actually have made a quite decent life for myself here in Konoha.'

'But you _can't _remain here! Your father's here.'

'I also have a father back at home.' Kaiya pointed out. 'What makes you think that I'd treat Kakashi-sensei differently now that I found out we're blood-related? For me, he's just an ordinary shinobi who happens to be my father.'

Fuzasane looked away, displeased with the answer. 'You'd still have to return back home, even for a while. You have to clear things up with Taka and your aunt once and for all. After that, you're free to do as you please.'

'For how long?'

'For good.'

'This is a seriously unsteady gamble you want me to play.'

'It isn't a gamble. If you manage to promise yourself the post of Alpha, you can pass it on to someone else. Nobody'll be able to tell you anything.'

Kaiya thought for a while. It was a win on both sides, but it seemed just too good to be true.

'I'll think about it.' She said, before brushing it off. 'How's Kouta?'

Fuzasane pursed her lips as she looked at her daughter. _Of course, she'd ask about her brother._

'He's fine, but he misses you a lot.'

Quietness filled the room. Kaiya looked down as she fidgeted her fingers, and Fuzasane was in thought. After a while, Fuzasane chose to break the silence.

'I'm tired.'

'You can sleep in my room.' Kaiya offered.

'No, it's fine. That's _your _room, not mine.' Fuzasane refused. 'I'll sleep on the couch.'

Kaiya sighed. It was expected from her mother to say that- in fact, it should've been expected that anyone from her family would react a little differently than most people.

One of the things you _had _to know if you ever wanted to become part of the Kobayashi clan was how people tended to get protective of their own stuff, and didn't lust much for someone else's stuff- they considered it a disrespect.

There were quite a few etiquette rules and other various manners in the Kobayashi clan that an outsider probably couldn't keep up with, but Kaiya just knew them out of reflex.

'Are you-' Kaiya began, standing up.

'Yes, I'm _sure._' Her mother said, taking a seat on the couch.

'Fine, then. Do as you please.' Kaiya shrugged as she walked to the door, 'I don't want to bother you much, so I'll go solve some business.'

Fuzasane furrowed her eyebrows questioningly but bit her lip. _There's no point in asking now, _she thought. Maybe she'll ask later, but it would be best to let the girl do as she pleases for now. Kaiya took on a leather jacket she had. She bid her mother goodbye, before exiting the apartment.

Fuzasane sighed as she let herself drop on the couch. She sighed. Now that she thought of it, she realised that they didn't have the best reunion. Not after three years of knowing nothing of each other. Her daughter could've been long dead or treated badly, and when she's finally proven the opposite... she decides to make a scene.  
Even so, she couldn't help to feel relieved. _Her daughter was alive and well. Right there, next to her._

Kaiya walked aimlessly down Konoha's streets. At first, she thought it was all in her head. Soon enough though, she was sure of it. People _were, _in fact, looking at her from the corner of their eyes, maybe even whispering.

_The word must've gotten out, _Kaiya considered. There was no other option. She got one or two books before, but nothing as outstanding as this. Even so, she couldn't care less at the moment- she had other things to care for.

That day just took multiple twists and turns, and she needed to clear mind. Maybe she could find her team, perhaps they'd help her out...

Just as she thought of that, a familiar voice could be heard from behind her.

'Kaiya-san. Wait...' The voice said as it got closer to her, panting.

Kaiya looked around with a sweat-drop, as some civilians stopped to watch the scene. Just behind her, stood Lee, panting very hard, resting on his crutches.

'Did you force yourself again, Lee?' She asked. 'You know what the doctors said.'

'Yeah, but... I needed to talk to you.' He said.

Kaiya waited for the boy to catch his breath. He soon regained stability and began walking normally- well, as normal as you can with crutches- alongside Kaiya. Kaiya already foresaw what the conversation will be about, but she chose not to push it.

'Would you like to eat some ramen?' Lee asked, calmly.

The question was so sudden and off-topic that Kaiya needed to stop for a second and blink twice. 'I'm sorry, what?'

'Would you like to eat some Ramen?' He repeated.

For a moment, Kaiya wanted to point out how they already did that just an evening before but seeing the situation she was in, it didn't sound so bad. 'Sure.'

Up until Ichiraku's Ramen, there wasn't much discussion between the two. They both seemed very shocked about the damages that happened to the village. When they eventually reached the place, they saw how, much to Kaiya's surprise, the building was near if not fully intact, leaving aside all the specks of dust on it.

They entered and noticed how the small restaurant had 2 other guests- a tall, well-built man with white, long hair at an advanced age, and a blonde boy around 12 in an orange and blue suit, an more familiar face.

'You're fuelling up before your mission, eh, Naruto?' The owner of the restaurant asked as Naruto was eating his third bowl of Ramen.

Noticing Kaiya and Lee entering, he turned for a second to his daughter.

'Ayame, please take care of the two.'

'Yes, father.' Ayame nodded.

The white-haired man and Naruto turned around to see Kaiya and Lee sitting down slightly awkwardly, as they were handed two menus by Ayame.

'Lee!' Naruto exclaimed. 'How are you? I haven't really seen you since after the preliminaries.'

'I'm doing great!' Lee asked, in his typical energetic voice. 'Thank you for asking, Naruto-Kun.'

'Who were you again...? I forgot your name.' Naruto asked, squinting at Kaiya.

'I'm Kaiya.' She answered coldly.

'Oh yeah!' Naruto exclaimed, illuminated. 'You're Kiba's cousin, right?'

Kaiya pursed her lips with a slight nod. 'Yep, that's me.'

'But you're less annoying...' Naruto pointed out, confused.

For some reason, Naruto's comment was a hilarious thing for the White-haired man.

'Family hasn't always to do with personalities and temper, Naruto.' The man said.

'I know that...' Naruto puffed his cheeks as he turned his attention back to his bowl.

'Can I get your order?' Ayame asked, sounding much nicer than the first time Kaiya met her.

'I'll have a Tonkatsu ramen, miss.' Lee said, putting down his menu.

'Alright. What about you?' Ayame turned to Kaiya, with a smile.

'Well, I think I'll have a Paitan Ramen.' Kaiya said, returning the smile.

Ayame nodded as she took the menus, before walking away into the kitchen. If the rumours were true about the girl, then she should be careful on how she acted with the girl, otherwise, she'd be in big trouble.

Just as Naruto was about to order another bowl, the White-haired man patted his back. 'I think it's enough Ramen, for now, Naruto.'

Naruto muttered something under his breath obviously displeased as the man paid the check, but he didn't argue. The man paid the check and left the restaurant along with Naruto, bidding the restaurant's owner goodbye. Just as they did that, two bowls of Ramen appeared in from of Kaiya and Lee. The two thanked, before dipping into the food.

'See ya later, Lee!' Naruto called out as he left. 'Next time we meet, I'll be really strong!'

'So will I be!' Lee answered back, but Kaiya wasn't sure that the blonde boy was able to hear him.

A few silent moments passed as the two waited for their ramen to cool off a bit.

'So, how's with the crutches?' She asked. 'You won't have to sit with them for long, right?'

'I'll get rid of them this week, but the doctors said I won't be able to be a ninja again.'

Kaiya looked down quietly with a sigh, before taking a bite from her ramen. It was a pity, indeed. Especially when thinking of all his hard work going down for nothing. She tried to find something motivating to tell the boy, but there was nothing worth of saying- it was hard to argue with doctors without being one yourself and knowing your facts and she wouldn't enjoy lying to the boy in an attempt of giving him false hope.

'It's ok, I guess. Maybe I'll still be able to help you and Guy-sensei on missions.' Lee said as he forced a smile that made Kaiya tear apart a little on the inside. 'But I'll be fine anyhow. I wanted to ask you something else, Kaiya-san. I heard these rumours about you. Something about that you're blood-related to Kakashi-sensei.'

Just as he said that someone entered the restaurant without making a sound, and stopped in his tracks to listen. The owner raised his head to greet him, but the masked man with silver hair made a sign to keep quiet to which the owner nodded obediently- he understood the situation.

Kaiya pursed her lips. She knew this was coming but there was no going back now.

'Well, yes, it appears so.' Kaiya said calmly and noticed how Lee's eyes widened in surprise. 'My mother came in town a couple of hours ago and decided it was time for me to know who my biological father is... with him present.'

Lee nearly choked on his ramen.

'But how do you know for sure he _is _your father?' Lee asked.

'My mother never really made a habit of lying to me, and, according to some DNA tests, my DNA matches with Kakashi-sensei's.'

The man behind the closed eyes for a second. _So Fuzasane took care that the girl had no clue who her real father is., _he thought. _It's understandable, taking the circumstances._

'I see. Wait- your mother's in town?' Lee asked, bombarding.

Kaiya nodded. 'That is correct.'

'Why is she not with you?'

'She said she was tired.' Kaiya shrugged. 'I let her rest in my apartment. She didn't really seem to mind me leaving her alone for a bit.'

'So, are you able to tell me more about you, now?' Lee asked.

Kaiya sighed a little. 'I guess I could, now. My mother says it's fine, so... I guess I could.'

So, she told him everything. She told him about her clan and the traditions, about her childhood, about her little brothers, about her aunts and cousins, and so on.

The still undetected listener behind him took in every word and analysed carefully, finding himself at loss of words. Not even Fuzasane, the closest person he once had there, told him this much, and it honestly amazed him, whilst a feeling of guilt slowly crippled upon him.

On the other hand, Lee found it all fascinating- he didn't invest much thought in what Kaiya's past could be, but even when he did, never had he expected so much story. If he didn't consider it before, it was time he considered and acknowledged a fact- Kaiya was a fascinating person.

'So let me get this on the correct line.' He said after Kaiya was finished. 'You come from the Kobayashi clan, which is situated somewhere at the border of the Land of Lightning, in a forest.'

'Correct.' Kaiya nodded.

'However, your family isn't affiliated with the country. Your family made a deal with the Raikage to be able to live there, without interfering with the affiliated shinobi.'

'Also correct.'

'Your clan has a Kekkei Genkai that allows you to transform into wolves, but it is very hard to achieve control over it because... wait I still don't get it very well.'

'We have a bad chakra control.' Kaiya explained. 'Not that we _couldn't, _but there's no one fitting enough to teach us how to use it. If you want to shapeshift, you'll need an _extremely _good chakra control, otherwise, you'd mutilate yourself and remain part wolf. Many people died like that in my clan, so now it's recommended for us to stay away from the Kekkei Genkai.'

'Right! That explains your bad chakra control when you first came here. So, your family focused on Taijutsu and weaponry, which _also _explains why you're really good at that _and _you know how to hunt.'

'You got it all right.' Kaiya nodded, with a smile growing on her face.

It honestly felt good to vent off, but the thing that topped it was the fact that the boy didn't overreact or respond negatively in any way, but was rather curious and showed immediate acceptance. It felt nice to be around people like that.

'Sometimes, there's also a side effect to your Kekkei Kekkei Genkai with which some people are born with, that allows them to see the spirits of the dead and talk to them, correct?' Lee asked, and Kaiya approved. 'They're named Spirit-seers or priests  
The side effect drains them from chakra all the time until they learn how to control their powers. May I ask a question?'

'Shoot it.' Kaiya encouraged.

'How do you know if you're a Spirit-seer?'

Kaiya shrugged. 'I guess you start considering when you become self-conscious about the fact that you see things others don't.'

'Have you ever considered being a Spirit-Seer?'

Kaiya's face tensed in thought for a second. 'Hm, not really, to be honest. I never really felt like I saw unusual things.'

Lee nodded.

'You have two younger brothers, right?' Lee asked Kaiya nodded. 'Jun and Kouta. But... Jun died a few years ago in an hunting accident, which made you leave.'

Lee pursed his lips. He was very aware that this was a rather sensitive subject, so he decided that for now, he wouldn't put too many questions on them.

'But... Kakashi-sensei's not their father as well, right?'

Kaiya shook her head, regaining posure.

'Nah. More like half-brothers, actually. My mother married this elite hunter from our clan, Kaito-san, sometime after I was born and had Kouta and Jun with him.'

'Really? What's he like?'

'He's a nice man, but my brothers and I didn't get to see him particularly often, y' know, being an elite hunter and all, but I can't say he wasn't present as a father. He lets me call him father, and even gave me a bow and some arrows hand made by him as a gift when I took my first animal down.'

A few moments of silence pass, as the two finished their bowls of Ramen.

'So your mother didn't tell you anything about Kakashi-sensei?'

'No, not really. She once let it slip that he lived in Konoha, but all the rest of the information I got about him was that he shouldn't be trusted.'

'Hm.' Lee considered. 'And how do _you _feel about it?'

Kaiya looked at Lee surprised. 'Me?'

'Yeah. How do you feel about it?'

'I-I don't know. I don't really blame my mother for saying that stuff- that's how she feels about it, after all-, but I can't really hate my father the way she does.'

'I see. So you're not angry at Kakashi-sensei.' Lee said, in a slightly questioning tone.

'Lee, now listen. I am _not _a copy of my mother, nor my father. I haven't experienced what she did, so we're two different persons. Unlike her, I will give my children freedom and choice. Unlike my father, I won't run away from my mistakes, only to live in regret later. But there is one thing that, as a mother, is my duty to do, just like my mother before me. I will love my children unconditionally. Do you understand?'

Lee fell in thought for a while, as Ayame came along to take their now empty bowls. Behind them, the masked man looked at the girl in amazement. If his calculations were right, the girl was only 14, and yet she was thinking in a much mature way than he expected.

'That's wise.' Lee said, still in thought.

'And you know, I can't really say that my family was necessarily happy with the whole situation, but in the end, why should I defend my parents, my clan or anyone? I won't defend my parents, as I am just the mere result of a mistake made through a dark time. I won't accuse them either though, as I wouldn't be here if they would've not helped when I couldn't defend myself as a child.'

'She's a really smart girl, father.' Ayame told her father in the kitchen, as she was washing some dishes.

'So... you're not having any... _ill _feelings towards Kakashi-sensei.' Lee stated.

Kaiya shrugged.

'Not really. As a child, I guess I always carved to know who my real father, but seeing it from here, I could never ask him for all the affection I had missed. How could I ask for something he himself might still miss? As long as he shows me acceptance and acknowledges me as the ordinary being I am, there's nothing I could ask more from my father.'

At this point, Kakashi couldn't take in all that information right there, at that moment. He slowly backed away and walked away, his mind fuzzy and confused. _Could it really be that he had a child that didn't hate him for not treating them the way he should've?_

He shook his head. The whole situation seemed unreal. For a moment, his mind flickered to his father. What would've he said if he knew? If he only knew...

Neither of the two noticed nor felt Kakashi's presence appear or disappear. The two paid for their meals and Kaiya looked at the clock. _It was nearly 6 pm. _Kaiya closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calm herself down. _Her mother would kill her for being so late._

'Do you want me to walk you home?' Lee offered.

'I'll do good by myself, thanks.'

'Alright then.' Lee nodded before they began to walk separate ways.

A few seconds later, he remembered something, all of a sudden.

'Kaiya-San!' He called out, catching the girl's attention. 'Can I tell our team about this?'

Kaiya thought for a little and considered, before eventually answering.

'Do as you please!' She said.

She told everything she could to him and she probably didn't have any energy to tell the whole thing again and again. Hopefully, if the boy chose to tell the story -which he most probably _will_\- he will get most of it accurate. She waved once again to Lee as a goodbye, before walking back home slowly.

This was sure a full day.

**A/N**

**What's up my dudes?**

**Another chapter here! I'm happy/ surprised to announce that the next chapter in this book will (probably) be the last one in this book! But weep not the sequel will make it's way very soon here. The sequel will be named 'The Wolf Within'. What do you guys think?**

**I actually made a cover for that book:**

**Now on this chapter, it ****_did, _****in fact, take a lot of time to come out, but I'm afraid I had to rewrite the whole thing halfway through. Why? you may ask. Well, the chapter took some turns that weren't planned and the chapter didn't look the way I wanted it. What was the only good way to fix it? ****_Delete and rewrite. _****But here we are back with the 3.6K worth of words just for you guys. **

**So, you guys got to know just ****_so _****much more about Kaiya and her past. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments!**

**See you in the next chapter!**

**-Avery**


	22. Departure

'Sorry to leave you like this, mom, but Lady Hokage called me to her office.' Kaiya said.

It was about two or three weeks after Orochimaru's attack, and the town was recovering nicely.

It was a rather early morning time to be summoned to the Hokage -especially for a genin-, around 8 am, but it seemed like the Fifth Hokage took an interest in Kaiya and was willing to talk to her. Kaiya wasn't very sure about why she was summoned like that, but she hoped it wasn't about her mother's sudden appearance.

'They already chose a new leader?' Fuzasane asked.

Kaiya shrugged. 'Well, you know it- Every town needs a leader, and none can survive much without one. She's already been making herself comfortable with it for the past few days, but the ceremony shall happen one of these days, I think.'

'Hmph. Fair point.' Fuzasane puffed. 'Well, you don't want to be late. Who knows- maybe she's just like your aunt Ichika.'

Ichika was Fuzasane's oldest sister, also the Alpha -or the leader, may you call it- of the Kobayashi clan. Well, the post as an Alpha had its effect on the 30-year-old woman, without a doubt- with time, she became more strict and didn't fear taking action. The members of the clan caught on quickly that she wasn't all games.

As for Fuzasane, although she had the bad luck to be born as the youngest of the 3 daughters, she still managed to become a Beta- the Alpha's assistant.

Kaiya forced a small smile as she took on her jacket.

'Let's hope not.' She said, before leaving. 'See ya later.'

The walk turned out to be shorter than Kaiya remembered. The town was still waking up slowly, so the only people you'd see were various genin teams, jonins and shop owners who were opening their shops and kiosks.

Kaiya entered the Main Building and, soon enough, she found herself in front of the Hokage's office. She took a moment to breathe in and put in order to calm herself down, before knocking at the door.

'Come in, already.' Said a feminine, upbeat yet bored voice loudly, before it turned into a mutter. '_Not like I've got anything better to do like to like to listen to your problems._'

Kaiya pushed the door open hesitatly. She closed the door behind her as she entered, and kneelt down before the Hokage's office. The Fifth Hokage turned out to be a woman in her 50-is with pale blonde, long hair, brown eyes and a green pullover over a white blouse. Next to the Hokage stood a woman somewhat younger, with short, black hair and dark garment, holding a small pig. The Hokage, also known as Tsunade, sighed as she looked at the girl.

There were some reports of the girl being slightly anorexic but honestly, she hardly even looked anorexic now.

'No need to kneel before me, child. Get up.' The blonde woman said in a nicer tone, as Kaiya obeied quietly. 'You must be Kaiya? Kaiya Hatake?'

Kaiya took a gulp as she stood up straight.

'Yes ma'am, but I don't use the name 'Hatake'. I go by 'Kobayashi'.'

The woman nodded, understandingly. She heard some stuff and, if they turned out to be true, it was very reasonable for her to say that. "I see. May I know why?'

Kaiya looked at the woman and told her everything just like she did with Lee, but in a more formal way, of course. The Fifth Hokage listened thoroughly calm and reserved and didn't intrerupt once- the girl was fairly clear in her story and she didn't want to break the story flow. After the girl was finished talking, Tsunade remained silent for a while. It was quite alot of informaton to take in at once, but it wasn't necessarily anything she wasn't used to.

'So, your mother never really told you how she and your father met?' Tsunade asked, and Kaiya nodded. 'Then I'll solve it for you- It can't be that hard. Shizune, please give me those folders.'

'Yes, ma-am!' The dark haired woman said as she put the small pig down, before rushing to a pile of folders.

She brought them back and layed them in front of Tsunade, who hummed a _thank you_ as she began searching through them.

'If you're 14... then... ANBU...' She mumbled to herself as she searched through. 'Ok, I think I have the gist of it.'

'Really?' Kaiya frowned.

It didn't take more than a few minutes. How could she gather enough information about it in such a short time...?

'It isn't much, but it should do for one believable theory.' Tsunade said. 'So, you're what? Fourteen?'

'Yes, miss.' Kaiya nodded.

'Well.' Tsunade clapped her hands togheter. If my calculations are correct, then your father, Kakashi, should've been at about the same age when he had you. Meanwhile, these files say that when he was fourteen, he was the ANBU- I think you've heard of them. So, according to my theory, Kakashi was on an ANBU mission at some point when he, under various circumstances, came across your clan. Something happened there -it's still very unclear to me so I couldn't tell with exactly what- and he met your mother. They might've got close, perhaps _too close, _and your mother became pregnant. Taking that you didn't know anything about your father and how your mother never really said anything about him, I assume he must've got taken aback by the whole situation and he chose to stay away. What do you think?'

'That's actually a really good theory, Tsunade-sama!' The dark haired woman named Shizune exclaimed.

Kaiya blinked a few times, in thought. It was a quite good theory.

'I'll ask my mother about it when I'll get the chance.' Kaiya said, eventually.

Tsunade nodded. 'Alright. Your mother asked you about returning to your clan to sort things out, correct? Did you decide?'

'I did.' Kaiya said, after a quick pause. 'And my answer... I decided that I'll return. Not forever, but until manage to sort some things out. After that, I hope of returning to Konoha.'

'I don't know if it works like that...' Shizune sighed.

'I don't either.' Tsunade snapped. 'But from what I understand, you showed a good loyalty towards Konoha and your sensei doesn't have anything bad to say about you. You're not the first one in a situation like this, and since you proved to be a good shinobi, I want to grant you free trepassing through Konoha for as long as you live. You may stay as long as you please with your clan, as long as you promise to return to Konoha, still loyal.'

Kaiya opened her mouth and closed it before repeating the action, unsure how to react.

'Thank you, Hokage-sama.' She said, with a bow.

'When will you leave?' Tsunade asked, with a smile.

'Today, after my mother's insistations.' Kaiya answers. 'We'll leave in a few hours.'

'Well, I wish you a good journey and, hopefully, we'll meet again soon.' Tsunade said.

Kaiya smiled. 'Thank you. I'm sure it won't take long until my return.'

Kaiya bowed one more time before heading to the door. As she opened the door, she stopped and turned around.

'Lady Hokage, could I ask for a small favour?' She asked.

'Sure.' Tsunade shrugged. 'What do you need?'

'Could someone pass by my apartment every now and then and take care of it while I'm gone?'

'No problem. I'll look for someone.'

'Thank you, Lady Hokage.' Kaiya said, before bidding another goodbye and leaving.

'Her manners are a bit similar to Kakashi's, aren't they, Shizune?' Tsunade asked, turning to the dark-haired woman.

'I guess, but she doesn't look much like him.' Shizune answered with a shrug.

'I don't look much like a Senju, now do I? But I'm still one.' Tsunade pointed out, calmly. 'On the other hand, she has his eyes.'

'Hm? I didn't look at her eyes, to be honest.'

The two continued to talk about it for awhile, before eventually changing the subject.

_She seems like a good person, _Tsunade thought for one last time, hopefully, we'll see more of her.

Kaiya looked around the village as she walked towards the exit of the village, with her tachi on her back. Weirdly enough, she felt like, whilst staying there, she got a little attached to the village. Beside her, Fuzasane seemed a little more critical on the whole situation.

'There are so many people, I honestly don't know why you like it so much here.' She commented.

'Sometimes, it can be annoying, but it's mostly nice to see all the people.' Kaiya answered. 'Besides, there are plenty of people at home. What makes this any different?'

Fuzasane shrugged her shoulders. 'Here, they're all strangers.'

'Fair point.'

Just as Kaiya wanted to say something, some agitated voiced hurried from somewhere behind them.

'Kaiya- wait! Neji, keep up already!' One of the voices said.

Kaiya and Fuzasane stopped in their tracks and turned around, to see Guy and the rest of Kaiya's team rushing towards them. They eventually reached them and stopped, breathing heavily.

Fuzasane analysed the group and figured rather quickly who they were.

'Man, what a race...' Tenten sighed. 'Kaiya! We heard that you were leaving?'

'Mhm. That's correct. But not forever, though.' Kaiya answered.

'What do you mean?' Neji asked.

'I have some busniess to solve. After that, I might as well return to Konoha.'

'I see. The lady behind you is your mother, correct?' Guy asked, choosing his words carefully.

Lee had informed his team about what Kaiya said that morning, but he didn't go into detail. Anyhow, the story still took him aback, and it had a very similat effect upon the rest of the team. Knowing Kakashi, he knew for a fact that the woman might not have the best temperament.

'Y...Yes.' Kaiya spoke, with a sweat drop. 'She is my mother. Mother, please meet my team.'

Tenten, Lee and Neji looked at the woman, wide-eyed. They all were more or less surprised and curious about the woman, but they weren't fully sure of what to do or say, and Fuzasane's aura didn't help much.

'_Lovely.' _Fuzasane said, pursing her lips as she looked at the small group.

'Well, I suppose we should leave now.' Kaiya smiled.

'Wait for a second- you know Lady Hokage, right?' Lee asked, all hyped up.

'Yeah. I just went to her office this morning.' Kaiya said.

'Well, she's a really good doctor, it turns out! She did a check on me, and she said that she knows of an operation that could make me able to become a good shinobi again! Isn't that great?'

Kaiya's eyes widened in surprise.

'Really? That's great!' Kaiya said, a smile growing on her face. 'When will the operation be?'

'She said that everything will be ready in two weeks.'

'Well mother,' Kaiya turned to her mother, 'it appears that we'll have to postpone our departure for two weeks.'

'But-' Fuzasane tried to revolt, confused by her daughter's actions.

'Mother, I'm sure aunt Ichika won't mind much. I mean, dad's there.'

'Your dad?' Guy frowned. 'You mean Kakashi's there? I just saw him around this morning!'

Kaiya laughed lightly.

'No, not him! I have a step-dad as well.' She explained. 'My mother is married to him and she had my little brothers with him.'

Guy nodded along with a _hm, _understanding the situation better.

'So you'll remain a little longer?' Tenten asked, hopeful.

Kaiya shrugged her shoulders along with a small smile. 'It appears so.'

Tenten jumped and caught Kaiya into a hug. At first, Kaiya was shocked by the girl -not as shocked as Fuzasane, though-, but eventually relaxed her muscles and responded to the hug positively.

Kaiya sat on a hospital chair with her hand covering her mouth and one of her legs tapping the ground uncontrollably. Next, to her, her team sat in a slightly calmer yet still tense state.

'You need to relax, Kaiya.' Tenten said, next to her. 'He'll be fine.'

'I know. I don't know why I'm stressing so much.' Kaiya said, before glancing at a clock on the wall. 'He's been in there for three hours already.'

'It's a complex work.' Guy said. 'It's to be expected.'

'What's to be expected?' A familiar voice said next to them, all of a sudden.

They all turned around to see a familiar face with a bowl cut and a green suit, sitting in a wheelchair.

'Lee, you're fine!' Guy said, jumping out of his seat to hug the boy. 'I _knew _you're gonna make it!'

'Sensei, take it easy.' Neji said. 'He just got out of the operation room.'

'Right!' Guy obliged, letting go of Lee and backing away a bit.

'Listen to the boy, Guy!' A cocky, woman voice said from down the hall.

The Hokage walked up to them with the biggest grin she could give.

'I'm happy to announce,' she said as she finally reached them, 'that the operation was a full success!'

The small group began clapping, giving the woman the credit she deserved.

'So, how do you feel?' Kaiya asked, turning her attention to Lee.

'How do I feel?' He repeated. '_Youthful!'_

Kaiya covered her eyes for a moment, massaging her nerves as she whispered a _why?_. _How could she expect any different answer?_

'Relax, now will ya?' Tsunade asked with a laugh, pushing his head forth a little, before turning to Guy. 'He'll have to sit again in a wheelchair and cruthces for a while, but he'll be fine.'

'It's fine! I'm sure that it won't stop him any less, right Lee?' Guy said.

'_Yes, sir!' _Lee answered, with a salute.

'

So I guess this really is goodbye.' Tenten said.

It was, at last, time for Kaiya and Fuzasane to leave. Kaiya's team came to bid a last goodbye at the gates. That day, the last leaves began falling as a cool air made itself present through Konoha, along with some clouds. That might've happened due to the fact that it was a mid to late november, but it didn't help much to the state around the group.

'I suppose so. But it isn't forever, you know that.' Kaiya said. 'We'll see of eachother again.'

'Well, I can't wait until then!' Lee said.

Fuzasane shot a look at Kaiya, who understood exactly what she wanted to say, and so did everyone.

'Well, take care, okay?' Kaiya said.

At this point, Guy began shaking and, soon enough, the shaking turned into sobs.

'Guy-sensei...' Neji said, looking at Guy with mixed feelings of understanding and dissapointing.

Kaiya sighed. 'Don't cry, sensei. I already told you- we'll meet again. See y' all!'

At this point, she greeted them with a wave, before turning around and walking away with her mother.

'You've gained some weight since three years ago.' Fuzasane said.

Kaiya laughed lightly. 'Yeah, I'll lose some weight-'

'There's no point in doing that.' Fuzasane cut her off. 'You look healthier. That's what's important.'

Kaiya looked at her mother surprised, before smiling a little. 'Thank you.'

Guy and his team remained there still, looking at Kaiya and Fuzasane until they dissapeared from sight.

'Come, it's time to go.' Guy said quietly when the two finally disappeared.

The group turned around and walked down the streets with their heads down. As they did that, something was clear- it was extremely quiet.

'Man, I can't wait for her to come back.' Tenten said. 'Is it weird that I already miss her?'

'Nah.' Neji said, surprising his teammates. 'But she'll come back, right?'

'_Right!' _Lee exclaimed.

Suddenly, Guy stopped for a second an looked over the house roofs around them.

'Is there something wrong, sensei?' Tenten asked.

Guy shook his head before continuing to walk.

'There's no point in staying undercover, Kakashi.' Guy said. 'She's gone.'

The three looked up and, much to their surprise, Kakashi was, indeed, on one of the roofs, looking down at them.

'He's really good at hiding!' Tenten exclaimed. 'But why did he do that?'

The guy shrugged his shoulders. 'Maybe he wanted to say goodbye to his daughter, but didn't know how.' He said.

Kakashi pursed his lips at the comment. The word _daughter _still sounded weird in his ears.

_I guess I'll have to get accustomed to it., _he thought.

For one thing, he knew it wasn't the last of Kaiya. It wasn't the last of his daughter.

**A/N**

**Heyyoo, how it going, y' all?**

**Here it is, the final chapter of **_**The Nomad**_**! What did you guys think of it?**

**If you guys wonder about all the time skips in this chapter, I still had a bit of plot and scenes and I had to compress it all together and still have a comprehensive piece of work.**

**So, I'm actually **_**really **_**happy that I got so far and, soon enough, I'll post the first chapter of the second book, which I decided to name 'The Wolf Within'. Here's the cover I made a while ago:**

**What do y' all think?**

**So, aside from the sequel, I was seriously thinking and planning on making a spin-off from these books which focuses on Kaiya's childhood. Why? Because, I honestly feel like that way, you guys can get more accustomed to Kaiya and secondary yet important characters from Kaiya's clan (Fuzasane, Kouta and Jun (Kaiya's brothers), Taka (Kaiya's cousin. You'll see much of him in the second book, Kaiya's stepdad, etc), and you guys get an inside look at the Kobayashi clan and their traditions and all that.**

**-Avery**


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